Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)
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I am delighted to be joined by the Minister of State, Ossian Smyth, who has ten minutes to open the debate.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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I am pleased to have the opportunity to appear before the Seanad to contribute to the debate on budget 2025, which was presented to the Dáil by the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform earlier today. As the Minister reflected, over the lifetime of this Government, we have faced extraordinary change, uncertainty and challenge. Despite all this, our budget strategy has delivered lasting improvements for the people of Ireland. Budget 2025 is set against a backdrop of full employment and a budget surplus, and this is to be welcomed. Budget 2025 secures and provides for the living standards of people in Ireland. It strengthens the supports available for individuals, families and businesses and ensures the most vulnerable people in our society are protected.

In the context of population growth and international uncertainty, budget 2025 is designed to meet the needs of our growing population by investing in infrastructure and in our public services. It is important that we consider and provide for all our people, both today and in the future. Budget 2025 sets out a substantial package of one-off and ongoing measures to support households, businesses and public services and builds on the progress of the last four budgets. It will see expenditure of €105.4 billion, in line with the parameters set out in the summer economic statement.

The Government is conscious of the pressure that people are under due to cost-of-living increases, and this is particularly important as we face into the winter months. A number of cost-of-living payments have been announced as part of budget 2025. This will include an energy credit of €250 for all households, to be paid in two instalments. An additional payment of €300 will be made to recipients of the fuel allowance in November of this year, and an additional €200 will be paid to recipients of the living alone allowance. There will be a one-off payment of €400 to people in receipt of the carer's support grant, disability allowance, blind pension, invalidity pension and domiciliary care allowance. These payments will be made this November. Funding will continue for the school transport fee reduction and for the State exam fee waiver. Budget 2025 also provides for the continued reduction of the student contribution fee by €1,000; a once-off reduction of 33% in the contribution fee for apprentices in higher education; and an increase in the postgraduate tuition fee contribution by €1,000 for student grant recipients.

A comprehensive social protection package worth almost €1.2 billion will provide for the following measures: an extra €12 a week for individuals in receipt of social protection payments; an October bonus double payment for recipients of long-term social protection payments; an increase in the carer's allowance means test disregard to €625 for a single person and €1,250 for a couple; a €20 increase to the domiciliary care allowance; an increase of the annual carer's support grant by €150, to €2,000; and making the carer's allowance a qualifying payment for the fuel allowance.In addition to this there will also be an increase of €15 for the maternity, paternity, adoptive and parents' payments, as well as an increase of the weekly rates of the increase for a qualified child payment by €4 for under-12s and by €8 for over-12s. There will be an extension of the hot meals school programme to all primary schools. We are bringing in a newborn grant. This will be, in effect, a triple child benefit payment for families of newborn children.

To support children and families, there will be two double payments of child benefit this year. The first one will be paid in November and the second one in December. There will also be a double payment of the foster care allowance. There will be a €400 lump-sum payment to recipients of the working family payment later this year and there will be €100 lump-sum payment for each qualified child.

Additional funding for the national childcare scheme will further reduce the cost of childcare for parents. There will also be a €336 million increase for disability services. This will facilitate additional residential care beds, more respite provision and additional home support hours.

In education, a capital allocation of €1.3 billion will support 350 building projects currently under way as well as a further 200 new school projects. Budget 2025 also provides funding for 768 additional special education teachers and 1,600 more special needs assistants.

A number of practical measures that will make an impact on families have been announced. These measures will improve access to school transportation and, importantly, provide for the rolling out of free textbooks to transition year and senior cycle students.

People engage with health services in this country when they are at their most vulnerable and Government has prioritised significant investment in the health sector. There has been a significant increase in the number of people working in our health service and that leads to better healthcare outcomes for patients. In 2025, the number working in our health service, not including disability services, will reach over 133,000 whole-time equivalents, which is an increase of 27% since 2019. Budget 2025 will also provide for 495 new beds to our health service and 600,000 additional home support hours.

There will be continued support for women’s health measures, including increased access to fertility treatment and hormone replacement therapy will be provided free of charge. In addition to this, funding provided under budget 2025 will enable the enhanced provision of mental health services around the country, which will support better health outcomes for our growing population.

This population needs infrastructure and this is provided for under the national development plan. A significant number of capital projects have already been developed, including hundreds of kilometres of new walking infrastructure, 170 km of new roads and the expansion of rural public transport. There will also be further investment of €400 million in acceleration of the national broadband plan. This budget will provide more homes, schools and hospital infrastructure.

Housing is a significant priority for Government, and €7.8 billion will be provided to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to help meet the needs of our growing population: a sum of €3.2 billion will be allocated to increase delivery and address affordability constraints for households, and of this, over €2 billion will be available in 2025 to deliver 10,000 new-build social homes; €680 million is allocated to affordable housing schemes, supporting the delivery of 6,400 affordable homes in 2025; €1.65 billion will be provided to continue to support 65,000 social housing tenant households; €23 million has been allocated to deliver accommodation for the Traveller community; €186 million in funding will support the regeneration of towns and urban areas; €100 million will provide grants to adapt the homes of older people and people with a disability; and €90 million has been allocated to retrofit approximately 2,500 social homes in 2025. This important provision demonstrates our commitment to tackling climate change.

Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions are reducing and this Government will continue to invest in tackling climate change. Capital funding for the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications has been increased to over €1.4 billion to allow for record allocations to be made for investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy. Warmer homes funding will significantly increase the number of households benefitting from deep retrofitting. Over €716 million is being provided to support farmers as we work together to achieve our shared environmental goals through agri-environmental schemes, such as ACRES.

The carbon tax will increase by €7.50 per tonne as part of budget 2025. This brings the total carbon tax revenue available for investment to €951 million. Applying a carbon tax remains an integral part of the Government's climate action response. Much of the revenue raised through the carbon tax will be invested in improving the energy efficiency of our homes. The carbon tax will also fund €306 million of social protection spending in 2025. The Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund is one of two funds established this year to manage windfall tax receipts and to prepare for the future. This fund will be used to support designated environmental projects, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving water quality, and to protect biodiversity.

Our public transport network supports how we live, work and remain connected to each other. Some €3.9 billion is being allocated to the Department of Transport to facilitate continued investment in our public transport vehicles and infrastructure. This will provide for more capacity on existing routes and for the continuation of reduced fares on public transport. It will also provide for the extending of free public transport to children aged between five and eight years old.

Over €2 billion is being allocated to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for 2025. This budget shows a commitment to supporting farmers, foresters and fishers, and provides additional funding for a range of supports, including payments for animal health measures and beef and sheep welfare schemes. There will be €30 million provided for a tillage scheme, supporting farmers to plant their field crops. Some €143 million of carbon tax funding will be provided to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to continue to support farmers as they work to improve biodiversity, climate, air quality and water quality outcomes. The Department will also administer over €1.2 billion of EU funding in direct payments to farmers.

Budget 2025 provides for an investment of €472 million for the Department of Rural and Community Development to support the delivery of commitments in Our Rural Future and the national development plan.

Our educated and highly skilled workforce has long been a pillar of our economy and a driver of foreign direct investment. Investment of over €1 billion will support the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment’s programmes in 2025. In addition, an energy subsidy scheme worth €170 million has been announced for hospitality and retail businesses.

Budget 2025 provides more than €4.5 billion for the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, also announced progress in managing the National Training Fund. Funding to further education will facilitate additional healthcare and veterinary places, an increase in the PhD stipend and €78 million to support growth in the craft apprenticeship system.

For the Department of Justice, a record package of over €3.9 billion has been announced. This will allow for increases in funding for the Irish Prison Service with a provision for up to 350 additional staff. It will facilitate the recruitment of a further 1,000 gardaí and up to 150 Garda civilian staff. It will also provide for an additional €7 million for organisations providing supports to victims of domestic and gender-based sexual violence.

We are working to ensure that Ireland remains a safe and secure place to call home. Our Defence Forces underpin that, and €1.35 billion is being allocated to them for 2025. There will be a 22% increase in capital investment allocation, which will help to advance major defence equipment and infrastructural upgrades.

Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)
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In view of the time constraints, I ask the Minister to wrap up. He will have an opportunity to contribute again at the end of the debate.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Today's allocation will provide for a net increase of 400 in the number of Defence Forces members in 2025.

Budget 2025 provides immediate support to those who need it most and provides for the long-term investment in Ireland's infrastructure and public services. It is a budget that invests in our people and climate and demonstrates a responsible and balanced approach to managing Ireland's finances. I commend the budget to the House and look forward to engaging with colleagues on these important matters.

Róisín Garvey (Green Party)
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Tá sé an-suimiúil nach raibh a dhóthain ama ag an Aire Stáit dul tríd gach rud. Tá an buiséad chomh maith sin.

This is such a big and long budget, and so much money is being given out for many things, that the Minister of State ran out of time. You never get everything you want but that is the way it is in life in general. It is a part of being in a coalition government. It is a part of being here at this time when we face so many different challenges. I do, however, think that the budget has made a good attempt to figure out a lot of the challenges we face. It is good to see the investment in water, which is something I have been harping on about for the past four years. If we do not invest in water, we cannot build houses. It is incredible to see €750 million being given to Irish Water in order to get the water treatment and wastewater treatment plants that we need. We do not have the infrastructure.

That leads me to a great thing for which the Green Party had to fight, namely the land hoarding tax.That is based on land zoned for building that already has the services we need. It is great that we got that in the budget too. It is something for which my colleagues in the party, Steven Matthews and Roderic O'Gorman, fought hard. It is bad enough not having services, but when we have serviced land and we cannot build houses on it because people are hoarding land, we have to ask why. It is good we got that across the line.

It is also good to see that we are now investing in the grid. The grid definitely needs investment because people who are producing solar energy are struggling to put it onto the grid or to get paid for it because the grid is not fit for purpose. It is great to see the investment in that as well. On the housing side of things, it is good that we are seeing the retrofit programme increase and that we are continuing to retrofit more social houses for free. We all know we need an increased number of gardaí. It is great to see more special education teachers and SNAs because there seems to be a huge increase in demand for supports for children with diagnoses of special needs. The earlier we can give them such supports, the better, especially in the area of autism. I do not want to get upset talking about that because it is such a huge issue. Hopefully, this budget moves in some way towards sorting those really serious problems for the parents who struggle daily.

The €100 million for the adaptive home grant is massive for lots of older people who live in houses that are no longer fit for purpose, or people with disabilities who sometimes might feel they have to move to a nursing home when they do not want to. I know a lot of old people want to stay in their homes as long as they can, so it is great we are investing in that. Personally, I think the free hormone replacement therapy, HRT, is amazing. I have never tried it but you never know, I might do so now that it is free because it is costly. A lot of women have said to me it is unfair they have to pay so much money for it. That is great. I might have to chance that myself and all the men here would probably be delighted if I did. It is great we are taking women seriously with the free HRT. Myself, Senator Pauline O'Reilly and others have been fighting for that for a long time.

As a single parent, the free books up to leaving cert would have been amazing because the financial stress in September is mental. The older they get, as they progress from primary to secondary, the more it costs. That is a massive relief for lots of parents come September. The increase in sports funding is brilliant, especially the 10% increase for Sport Ireland based on the amazing work our athletes did at the Olympic Games. There is lots of time and we could go on forever because there are lots of good things.

I have to say I am sad we did not do more for small businesses. We did not do well in enterprise, trade and employment. We have failed small businesses and 70% of our jobs come from them. I did not secure the rate rebate I was looking for. We secured a €4,000 grant to help them with energy costs but they have had so many other hits that I thought there would have been more in the budget for small businesses. I am sorry we did not do that but I hope they avail of the supports that are there for small businesses as much as they can.

We have not seen gardaí on the street for a long time so if we are promised another 1,000 gardaí, I hope we see a few of them in Clare. They are badly needed. I never thought I would say we need more gardaí but eyes on the street are what we need. I am also disappointed there is no real clarity on upstairs living. There is a mention of Croí Cónaithe for upstairs living but we must tackle how we make upstairs living safe with regard to fire safety because we are expecting old businesses to use modern fire safety restrictions, which does not work. That is why there are so many people not living upstairs in houses.

It is a good budget overall. We did not get everything we wanted but I like to see the green fingerprints over everything. The triple boost to parents when their baby is born is a big help as well. I thank the Minister of State for his great work on the roll-out of rural broadband. That has made a massive difference and we now see further investment in the budget as well. People might give out about the bottles and cans scheme because people have to give out about something sometimes, but overall it is winning. It is an inconvenience for me. I always recycled and people say they always recycled, but it has reduced litter and those involved with Tidy Towns are really happy. I cannot wait to see more machines rolled out. As a result of the funding provided in this budget, we will see those machines go to lots of places rather than just the big supermarkets. I look forward to that. I thank the Minister of State personally for the work he has done to date.

Gerard Craughwell (Independent)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is a happy day for people in the Government because there is something for everybody in the audience and we should all be cheering. However, it would be remiss of me to stand here today and not find something wrong. From that point of view, budget 2025 has proved to me that Ireland is not a poor country by any measure. Indeed, our economy outperforms the economies of our EU peers for the most part. The question is this: are we good Europeans? Let me begin with my normal area, which is defence. I welcome the additional 400 members being allocated to the Defence Forces, the additional €100 million for defence and the extension of the naval tax credit, which are all excellent. However, spending money on an organisation that is faltering is folly unless the Government first fixes the underlying problems. In need of immediate action is the area of pay. The pay of members of the Defence Forces has not been fixed, contrary to what is being spread out there at the moment. Pay has been bottom loaded. The pay of private soldiers has been increased on completion of their training. The pay of cadets and young officers has also been increased but the differentials have not been increased. For example, a private moving to the rank of corporal can expect about an extra €7 a week. The differentials should have been kept the whole way up to incentivise people to seek higher rank, which has not been done. That has resulted in highly qualified people walking out of the Defence Forces in whom we the taxpayers have invested heavily to give them the skills they have. They take those skills with them when they leave.

The second matter, which relates to the Minister of State's Department, although it first arose long before he entered it, is the post-2013 pension scheme. What a bloody disaster. A pension scheme was brought in that is simply not fit for purpose. Those responsible tried to apply a one-rule-fits-all approach. For people on accelerated pensions such as those in the front-line services of the Defence Forces, the Garda, the fire service and prison officers, the post-2013 pension scheme is an incentive to walk out the door. More than 1,000 gardaí have left in the past 12 months because there is no point in staying. Clearly, people are voting with their feet. In the area of defence, the working time directive has been messed around with for as long as I have been in this House, which is ten years. I do not see any positive moves in the context of bringing in the working time directive.

To return to the area of pay, specialist pay in the Defence Forces is of great concern. We are talking about bringing in 400 recruits over the next 12 months but our Defence Forces instructors are not paid sufficient money to encourage them to stay. The risk that we will lose instructors is great.

I wonder if successive Governments have been ideologically opposed to Ireland being a sovereign State. I wonder if the Government is aware of its duties with respect to national sovereignty. Does it know that its responsibility is to protect our citizens and our borders - land, sea and air? Within Government, is there even the slightest embarrassment when Ministers meet their peers abroad at a time when we have surrendered responsibility for our airspace to a NATO country while waffling on about neutrality and remain dependent on the generosity of EU states to monitor the Atlantic Ocean for us? To our shame, unlike neighbouring countries such as Norway, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal and Iceland, Ireland lacks primary military radar and quick reaction alert capabilities. The latter are crucial for effective air policing. We have a duty to protect the numerous undersea cables passing through our waters. We also have a duty to be able to monitor the high volume of transatlantic flights traversing Irish airspace. Recent arms shipments to Israel passing through our airspace accentuate the need to significantly safeguard our national air sovereignty.

When asked about our ability to police our airspace, the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence replied that this would not be feasible in an Irish context. So, it appears that despite our wealth, the Government is happy to freeload on the generosity of our neighbours. The Tánaiste is wrong. A retired brigadier general and a retired Air Corps lieutenant colonel pilot instructor have identified a solution to the monitoring and security of our area of the western European airspace. They explain that air policing, a peace-time capability, involves monitoring airspace, identifying aerial threats and intercepting and escorting rogue or unidentified aircraft out of Irish airspace. In the context of €14 billion coming from the Apple tax money, they say that to bridge our capability gap, Ireland must promptly develop a meaningful air policing capability.This would entail an estimated initial capital investment of €350 million for aircraft procurement, with an additional annual cost of €20 million for crewing and maintenance. It is not as huge a figure as people constantly talk about. It is quite an affordable figure. They recommend the procurement of the Korean FA-50 or the Swedish Saab Gripen as they are the most suitable aircraft. They are both advanced supersonic jets with training capabilities and can be converted to combat use, enabling high altitude and high-speed intercepts. Shannon Airport is proposed as the most operationally suitable location to station Irish intercept aircraft. Situated on Ireland's west coast, it aligns with the most probable approach paths for rogue or unidentified aircraft from the west and north west. They estimate that the air policing operation could potentially employ 200 Air Corps personnel who, with their families, would amount to a workforce of 1,000 people in the Shannon region. This would be in line with the Government policy on regional development and employment. As I speak, the Tánaiste has advised Irish citizens in Lebanon to leave immediately. Shamefully, our so-called sovereign nation does not have any aircraft to evacuate these citizens. No doubt we will freeload on any country willing to carry our people.

I will turn to cybersecurity, in which the Minister of State has a huge interest and has been extremely active and where Ireland can be a world leader. I have heard the Minister of State say so himself. To achieve this, the Government must provide €1 billion, ring-fenced over ten years, for cyber education and training. Clearly, with a €1.5 billion surplus in the National Training Fund, this should not be a problem. There is an urgent need to increase the levels of cyber awareness among our citizens, starting with the aged and the young. The Government must fully fund cyber awareness training programmes. Cyber training must be part of the curriculum in every school, starting at third class in national school and continuing to leaving certificate level. The further education and training sector, led by SOLAS and the Education and Training Boards Ireland, ETBI, must become the lead provider of cyber skills training and we must see 10,000 places filled urgently.

I note a statement today on the new search and rescue, SAR, contract and the additional allocation of €71 million. The contract is not offering value for money. It is not unlike the previous contract, which the suppliers boasted was delivering better returns than their contracts for offshore helicopter services in the UK. I know for a fact that while the contract was being negotiated, no Minister had oversight of it. How do I know that? It is because the two Ministers involved, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the then Minister of State in that Department, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, wrote a joint letter to me stating they did not have first-hand sight of what was going on and they did not really know.

We saw from the fatal crash of Rescue 116 that rushing things is not a good idea. There was to be a start date of 1 November for the first SAR station to be built, but only today has the advertisement been published for SAR commanders to help to meet the contract. There is no way it will be ready on 1 November. We will have to follow that up in the next few days.

Shamefully, the Government excluded the Air Corps from providing any part of search and rescue services. It is beyond foolish to put all our SAR eggs in one basket. We saw the UK SAR service served with a strike notice that would have crippled it if the service were to have been shut down. I would like to see what would happen in the event of the SAR provider in this country going into administration or liquidation. What would happen if SAR crews were to go on strike or the AW-189 were grounded for technical reasons? While I commend the budget in general and it is good, my concern is the one gaping hole for a country that depends hugely on foreign direct investment: defence is still not taken seriously. We need to look at that very carefully. I appreciate the Minister of State's efforts on it and I would appreciate if he were to try to ring-fence money for cyber awareness and cyber training.

Seán Kyne (Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State is very welcome. I welcome the announcements in budget 2025. We have certainly come a long way from my first years in these Houses in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. It was a different world back then, but we put in place the foundation stone to allow for the budgets we see now and the necessary increase in spending to account for demographic changes. If you look at the projections provided in the budget brief, you will learn that our population has been growing at a rate faster than previously projected. The labour force is projected to increase by 485,000 to 3.2 million by 2037. These figures have to be taken into account when planning for the future, deciding whether changes have to be made to the national planning framework, considering measures which determine the level of capital expenditure and deciding on the areas to which expenditure is directed. I refer not only to the various areas within government but also to the parts of the country where that expenditure would be accounted for. That is important. With a growing population, we will have pressures on schools, childcare, Garda resources, health services and universities. We must always plan for the future of this country, which has a growing population. That is an important starting point in respect of where we are.

It is right and prudent that the windfall taxes from Apple, which were unexpected, would be directed towards capital projects rather than day-to-day spending. It would be imprudent to do otherwise. I certainly agree with the policy and direction of the Government on that. We must always urge caution with regard to the level of indebtedness in the country. While it is dropping, we still have a considerable national debt. The important issue is not the headline figure, but the ability to repay that debt.Nonetheless, when we introduce a budget and forecast expenditure, we have to be conscious of that level of indebtedness.

Under the Department of Health, there are commitments to increasing the number of hospital beds, which will obviously mean additional staffing to ensure those patients will be looked after. The beds are absolutely necessary. As members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health, we know how important the issues of workforce planning are throughout the country and across our local hospitals, whether that is in my local hospital in Galway, where there are pressures on the emergency department, or in the mid-west's hospital, University Hospital Limerick, where there are significant pressures year on year, not to mention all the other hospitals throughout the country, which can be under significant pressure where there is demand for increased numbers of beds and ward blocks. We cannot just click our fingers, however, and provide them. There has to be an ongoing plan for them, with planning permission and funding provided for them, before they can be rolled out. An increased number of beds will be available from next year, I understand, in University Hospital Limerick but we need more in Galway, too, where there is a shortage of new beds. Part of the redevelopment of the University Hospital Galway site will include an array of capital infrastructure, which will be important, and it is important to acknowledge that there will be reviews of capital budgets in the months to come as well.

Another area that has been talked about for some time relates to investment in further and higher education. If we are to prepare for the future and ensure we will have graduates in the specialties that are needed for the jobs of the future, it is important that we target that investment in areas. I welcome the level of investment that was announced for the Department of further and higher education and acknowledge the demands in those areas and the delivery by the Government.

Housing is a cornerstone of demand throughout the country and of the commitment by the Government, and we have seen the biggest housing budget in the history of the State. It has been boosted by €3 billion from the sale of AIB shares, which will go to the Land Development Agency and towards upgrading water and energy infrastructure. Water, wastewater and energy are issues that are necessary, and while they may not always be seen, they are vital to ensure we can put in place the infrastructure that is necessary. Irish Water's mandate thus far has related to areas where there are existing pipe networks and sewerage plants, ensuring those plants are upgraded. In my county, work has been done on our freshwater lakes, first, and will now also be done along our coastal areas, but we need to move beyond that.

I welcome pilot initiatives throughout the country that were funded last year in Galway, in Craughwell and Clarinbridge, but we need to roll out more of them. There are small settlements around the country that have never had adequate sewerage schemes, but they have the basis of a community, such as a local primary school. They may have a local community centre, a GAA club or other such facilities. They might have a core of shops, a post office, a pub or whatever else, but they might not have a sewerage scheme. Putting in place that infrastructure will allow a housing estate, whether small or large, comprising perhaps 15 or 30 units of affordable housing, to come in time. That can go a long way towards expanding the numbers of homes that are available. Ensuring that happens will also give us additional value for previous State investment and, indeed, previous community investment in these facilities. More needs to be done in that regard. Irish Water, as I said, is making progress on the existing facilities, but it also has to roll out work on facilities that might not currently be in its sightlines.

I welcome the commitment to extending the help-to-buy scheme until 2029, the increase to the rent tax credit and the increase to stamp duty on bulk purchases of homes from 10% to 15%.That is all very important.

On the area of justice, again we have a very significant increase in budgets and an increase in funding for An Garda Síochána, which will recruit between 800 and 1,000 additional gardaí. This has to be taken in the context of not just the funding but also the changes that were made over recent months to increase the age at which a person can join the Garda, up to the age of 50. I have up until May where I can hop in if needs be. It is an area where it is hoped these changes can yield positive results in respect of an increase in interest but then, subsequently, an increase in numbers actually joining. Without the basics of law and order, no country can prosper. If we do not have those basics, we will have lawlessness.

I certainly welcome the additional funding for An Garda Síochána and the significant increase in funding to deal with domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. I know it is an issue that is very much close to the Minister, Deputy McEntee's heart, and she has secured additional funding for that area. I welcome that and investment in the court and immigration systems to speed up decision-making. All in all, in the justice area, significant funding has been made.

On business areas, I welcome the commitment to the retail and hospitality sectors, which will receive an additional €4,000 energy grant by Christmas to cover the costs of higher energy bills. I also welcome the significant tax changes that will help small business and the self-employed, including changing the VAT threshold to allow small businesses and the self-employed to keep more of their own money. There will also be changes to the self-employed earned income tax credits to allow them to keep more of their hard-earned cash. That is all very welcome, as well as the changes to the research and development tax credit to assist in cash flow for companies undertaking smaller research and development projects. All in all, that is very welcome as well.

In conjunction with the tax side of things, which we will touch on later, this is a budget that recognises the growing population, the challenges communities are facing, and the needs across all sectors to respond to the growing population, to respond to the need to continue to invest, to create and protect jobs, and the need to invest in providing basic necessities such as additional homes in our communities.

Marie Sherlock (Labour)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber and thank him for being here today. As this current Government comes to the end of its term, the mark of any Government, indeed successive governments, is the permanent impact they leave on communities throughout this country. Fine Gael has been the common thread in Government since 2011 but we know that, particularly since 2016, we have seen eye-watering surpluses of €15.2 billion generated in this country, when we exclude the two pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. The projections set out in the budget documents today tell us there is an expectation that there will be surpluses worth €56 billion between 2025 and 2030. As somebody who has the budgets of 2009 and 2010 seared into my brain, these surpluses are fantastical. If someone were to have told us back in those years that our country would be in this place, we would not have believed it. Crucially, we would find it absolutely incredible that we would still have growing homeless figures, 4,000 children homeless, 20% of children in material deprivation, huge housing shortages and thousands of children with additional needs being failed day in, day out.

When I look at the €10.5 billion budget we have today, it is the stuff of dreams. I get there is a huge appetite for a cash injection into people's pockets, and I support some of the measures for workers in particular because I know there have been long-standing changes to the tax system that have been required.The key question the Government must answer is what will be left for people in their everyday lives when the once-off payments are gone. Cash is necessary. We saw how important it was during the pandemic. At times of acute necessity, as much as we had an issue with the universal nature of the tax credits, they were necessary when energy prices spiked in 2022 and 2023. The nature of the once-off payments and the cash being thrown at people on budget today is not a long-term solution. The budget does not offer long-term solutions in the context of the major cost-of-living challenges that exist in this country.

I wish to refer to a number of areas that I am particularly concerned about, the first of which is energy. The Minister of State and I know that retrofitting offers a great opportunity to permanently improve people's homes and reduce emissions. Some €475 million is being provided for retrofitting, as per the national development plan, but there is a 20-month wait time under the SEAI warmer homes scheme. Given the nature of the grants, those who do not qualify for the warmer homes scheme must take out loans or dig deep into their savings, if they are lucky enough to have them. There is no imagination as to how we reduce the cost of retrofitting for homes, and there is still a gap between the amount of the grant people are eligible for and what they have to fork out. There has been no reference today to street-by-street retrofitting, to how solar panels could be rolled out across entire communities or to the labour challenge.

All the time we hear that money is not a problem and that the blockage relates to delivery, but there is no imagination on show in this budget and nor are there solutions as to how we can ensure that there is a steady workforce and a supply of labour into the sector. The Housing Commission made a very specific recommendation during the summer about a housing construction agency, but that has been ignored by the Government. It is fine to throw our hands up in the air and say that we have no problem with money but that we just cannot get the workers. The Government has done nothing about the problem.

As my colleague Deputy Duncan Smith said in the Dáil, this needed to be a workforce budget. While that does not sound very sexy or glamorous, we should and could have looked at how we resolve the recruitment and retention issues that exist. I refer to the Garda, teachers and additional needs. The sum of €10 million is going into children's disability network teams, CDNTs. We know that 20,000 children will be on waiting lists for more than six months for assessments of need by the end of this year. The number is growing, yet no thought has been put into how we ensure that the people are there to deliver the services.

Housing is the single greatest workers' rights issue of our times, but there are is no change to the housing targets in the budget. That is notwithstanding everything we have seen this year with regard to population projections and the recognition that we need to increase the housing targets. If I recall correctly, targets were set in 2021 for 10,000 social houses and 6,400 affordable houses to be built this year. It is not even clear that we are going to achieve those targets, but there has been no change to them. What sort of ambition or imagination does this Government have with regard to housing if it is not even responding to the real need that is out there.

I am really frustrated by the increase in stamp duty for bulk purchases to 15%. When there was a kerfuffle a few years ago following the bulk purchase of houses in Maynooth, County Kildare, the Government acted accordingly, but it has ignored what is happening with the building of apartments right across Dublin and other major urban areas. I ask the Green Party whether it does not consider apartments to be homes. Does it not consider them suitable for purchase by individuals and families for living? Are apartments just to be used for social housing and cost-rental purposes? That is not good enough. Day in and day out, I meet people, especially in the constituency where I live, who have good jobs and decent incomes. They look at the cranes in the sky and they know they will never be able to purchase apartments in those buildings. They will never be able to make them homes because they are being built for rent and they are being bought up by institutional investors. The Government is sitting on its hands and allowing this to happen. Every time we raise this matter, we are told it is not viable to build apartments in Dublin. We must then make a decision on whether we want thousands of apartments to be built and owned by institutional investors for short-term rental accommodation or if we want apartments - which, because of population increases, should be the future of living in Dublin - to be part of the housing stock for long-term secure rental or purchase? This Government is not taking apartment living seriously. Not including apartments in the stamp duty increase is a real failure on the part of this Government when it comes to allowing people to have the aspiration of buying a house.

So many kites were flown in August and September in respect of a public childcare system, yet there is not a single reference in the budget to increasing of places. I do not know what it refers to, but there is €10 million extra for a capital budget for children. On the north side of Dublin, the fee reduction is welcome, but what people really need is a childcare place. We know there is a dire shortage of places at present.

I challenge the Ministers on the figures put out today in respect of a reduction in fees. What is proposed seems to amount to a maximum of €22 per week. We are not clear on how this is calculated. From talking to many parents I know, when they looked back over their invoices, although there had been a fee freeze since 2021, it was evident that their fees have been going up. There are real issues for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in terms of getting a handle on what exactly is happening with fees. A statement has been made regarding the reduction of fees, but we need to see the substance behind that, because while there is a lot of cash going into the sector, very little money is going to the workers. The real issue with childcare is that the money is not going to those who are holding up the sector.

There was great excitement among interested parties when the child poverty unit was set up some years ago, yet we must ask what this amounts to today's budget. There is a double payment of child benefit, a lump sum for the working-family payment, and little else. There is nothing for child poverty in this budget that represents an attempt to really to try and drive it down.

As a passionate cycling advocate, it is very disappointing that we see no increase for cycling infrastructure in the budget. We saw no increase last year and that has been repeated again this year. I would welcome any clarification in that regard, but I do not see any provision for increases in budget 2025.

Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the Minister of State. What this Government has failed to acknowledge, much less address, is that forced emigration is back for the young people of Ireland. Many have already left, while many more are considering emigrating or planning to do so. In the past year, 10,600 people emigrated to Australia alone, an increase from 4,700 in the previous year. They are leaving, not because of some collective sense of adventure, but because they simply do not see a future for themselves here in Ireland. Frustrated and angry, they feel robbed of a life here. Who could disagree with them - with house prices and rents continuing to soar, the cost-of-living crisis raging on, and a Government that will not even acknowledge the difficulties facing young people, much less take steps to address them.

Budgets are about choices. Sinn Féin's alternative budget contains the plans, policies, and ambition to deliver for young people. That means supporting not only young people but the communities that nurture and shape them, ensuring young people have vibrant places to live, explore, and develop. Young people should have more spaces dedicated to them and their specific needs.Sinn Féin would put €1 billion of the Apple tax money into a community fund to invest in working class communities that have been left behind. We would have provided additional funding for programmes such as the Social Inclusion and Community Activation and LEADER programmes, investment in youth services, including universal youth hubs, community centre investment, including capital funding for youth services, and €4.5 million for family resource centres.

We would also have invested over €100 million in a sports and cultural activity card for young people under the age of 18 which could be redeemed for sports, clubs and leisure and cultural activities and would have invested more money in the large scale investment fund and Irish soccer infrastructure, which, as we all know, is crumbling.

Sinn Féin recognises that young people are the future. They are the future gardaí, healthcare workers and tradespeople on which our hopes, plans and ambitions are built. Current Government underfunding and under-investment in further education means many young people are not getting the opportunity to achieve their full potential. We would invest in our young people and their potential. We would fund 1,000 new Garda recruits and 200 medicine places, as well as extending free fees initiative to graduate entry medical students. We would also abolish craft apprenticeship fees and extend State support for allowances for craft apprentices by increasing rates by 50%, as well as introducing an allowance for instructors of apprentices to increase training capacity in the system.

Going to college is supposed to be a time of excitement, broadening horizons and learning new things. For too many young people, it is one of hardship, anxiety and stress. Rising student accommodation costs mean many young people are left living miles from their university and face long, tiring and expensive commutes. We want to ensure students can live in reasonably priced, university-owned, on-campus accommodation. We would deliver this by investing €300 million in additional capital expenditure for student accommodation over a three-year period. This would advance the shovel-ready projects universities have in place, but have yet to proceed due to financial viability issues. It would allow us to commence the building of 3,000 much needed student beds over a three-year period. It is a disgrace that, in one of the richest countries in the world, many young people are forced to put their further education plans, plans they have worked hard to realise, on hold, sometimes indefinitely.

Young people do not need sound bites and patronising social media posts. They need a Government that listens and delivers for them. We would not only phase out the student contribution charge, with a first cut of €1,500 this year, we would also increase SUSI maintenance by 15% and extend SUSI to postgraduate fees for qualifying students.

Senator Sherlock mentioned making work pay. The fact is that, whether working to pay for college or starting out in a career, many young people are pinned to their collar, working low income jobs and struggling to get by. A fair day’s work should equal a fair day’s pay, and the minimum wage should have been increased by €1.10 an hour. Young people also need a fair tax package that works for them. We would have abolished the USC, a tax that disproportionately impacts lower income workers. We would instead place the tax burden where it rightly belongs, by introducing a solidarity tax of 3% on individual income over €140,000.

The future belongs to the young people of Ireland. We are the guardians for the next generation. That is why we are committed to implementing environmental policies that not only ensure the future of our planet, but also place the burden where it ought to be. A Sinn Féin Government would move away from punitive approaches such as the carbon tax and implement State-driven, supply-side investment in green infrastructure. We would address under-investment in renewable energy and grid infrastructure, with a €750 million renewable energy investment fund, starting with a €50 million investment in 2025, and implement a biodiversity and nature restoration fund, starting with a €50 million investment in year one.

It is abundantly clear that there is a better and a fairer way, a way that recognises we are only the guardians for future generations. There is a way that ensures the next generation has the same opportunities that we had, a community that nurtures them, an education system that equips them for a job that can provide them with a good standard of living and an opportunity to own a home of their own in a country that values its young people and its environment. Sinn Féin has the plans, ambition and commitment to deliver on this future.

Tim Lombard (Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State is more than welcome. It is great to have him in the House. I would like to acknowledge the budget proposed in the other House this afternoon. It is an important document and I want to acknowledge the amount of work that has gone into making sure it has been put before the Houses. It is a significant document and it is to be hoped it will do what it is required.

The budget is about trying to make sure that we put more money into the basic things that are required, namely building more homes, improving home ownership, a really important principle, and making sure that we help the families of Ireland who need support. The cost of living is huge issue. The amount of money that we put into things like child benefit, in particular, are important and mean families will have secure finances over the next few months. That will benefit everyone.

There has been an increase in supports for the farming community, in particular. I would like to mention the €2 billion for the farming community encompassing a range of packages. It is important that the House acknowledges that. We are seeing unprecedented money being put into farming communities to help roll out changes, which is important for society as well as those communities. Change involves making sure that schemes are put in place that will benefit these communities. I refer to environmental schemes, as well as an increase in welfare payments for sheep and the dairy beef proposal, which is significant. These measures are positive because they help to build momentum, energy and confidence in the sector.

I want to mention the tillage sector, which got a boost of €100 per hectare, a significant sum of money to help the industry. It had a very bad spring and quite a good autumn at the end of the year, but it is important that the industry is helped because we need to make sure that the number of acres, or hectares, depending on when one was born, under tillage in Ireland is increased. There has been little, if any growth, in the sector in terms of hectares over the past few years. The measures introduced have been beneficial for the agricultural community.

The roll-over of reliefs is important, in terms of making sure that we can encourage generational change, an important part of this. We need to try to make sure we get younger and female farmers into the system.

The changes in education are quite amazing. Where we are going with special needs has been a game changer, in terms of the amount of money put into that side of the house, something I want to acknowledge. We know there is a gap and a huge need for services. Sums of money I have never seen in my life in politics have now been allocated to that, which is very beneficial.

I would also like to mention the money put into school transport. The sum of money involved is important, but other issues in respect of school transport need to be examined. Over the past four or five months, a measure has been rolled out by the Minister which is helpful, but the major issue is getting people to drive the buses. As much as we are trying to ensure that we put money into education, we need to make sure transport services are in place. We need to look at Bus Éireann, in particular, in terms of how it administers the school transport scheme. I always mention the 70-year-olds. For some reason, Bus Éireann is the only organisation that wants to discriminate against 70-year-olds driving buses. Private operators have the opportunity to employ such people. We need to ensure we have an age-friendly environment when it comes to making sure the school transport system works.

We have put money into the system. The practical issues on the ground are quite clear. We do not have drivers. Bus Éireann, for some daft reason, has decided that a 70-year-old cannot drive a bus while private operators believe they can. The money is welcome, but the Department now needs to make sure that the issue of who drives the buses is sorted out, otherwise the money will go nowhere in terms of buying the services that are required.

This has been a well-received budget. It is important that we put it measures in place, in particular across agriculture and education, which are so important to us. It is to be hoped they will be an important platform to make sure that society will benefit.

Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State is very welcome to the House. I heard Senator Warfield speak as I came into the Chamber. He spoke about forced emigration, which he claims is happening.The people I know who are emigrating from this country are doing so not by force but to explore the world, broaden their horizons and have a bit of an adventure, which is possible because of the education they received in one of the best education systems in the world.

Unlike Senator Warfield, I am old enough to remember the 1980s, when there really was mass emigration as people were forced from these shores. There was a sense of despair and gloom. I remember my self-employed father on budget days, which were not like today. Investments were not being made but, rather, cuts delivered across the board. It is pitiful to hear many Opposition Members grasping at straws to find fault with a budget that includes record expenditure across Departments and puts investment into areas that never previously had investment.

Ordinary working people are the real winners from today's measures. The most significant measures introduced by the Minister, Deputy Chambers, whom I commend on his first budget, show his focus on those on the lowest wages. He has announced a personal income tax package of €1.6 billion. Most important is his focus on minimum wage increases to bring it up to €13.50 an hour. Also important are the changes to the USC entry thresholds, as a result of which full-time workers on the minimum wage are now €1,400 better off per annum than they were this morning. I challenge anyone to say that is not a good, decent and progressive measure. It ensures those on the lowest incomes are looked after by being €1,400 better off this evening than they were this morning.

That is before we even consider all the other measures, including in regard to childcare, child benefit and fuel allowance. People are not silly. They are making an adjudication this evening based on what they have heard and how their families are better off. People are better off not just on the basis of cash in their pocket, which they are, but also because the Government has looked at the structural side and sought to ensure the country's infrastructure is built up. It is seeking to leave a lasting legacy, ensure the mistakes of the past are not remade and that the funds others derided when they were established, and would raid if they got their hands on them, whether the Apple fund or others, are being put into infrastructural improvements.

An issue I have raised numerous times in my nine years in the House, and before that as a local authority member, is childcare. I pay tribute to the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, for the work he has done in this sphere, not just today but over the past five years. We now have a record expenditure of nearly €1.4 billion on early learning and childcare. That is an increase of almost €266 million. It will have a significant impact on the delivery of those services. People might not see that impact today or tomorrow but the changes will leave a lasting legacy. I pay tribute to the Minister for those changes, and to the Minister, Deputy Chambers, for funding them. More than 216,000 children are set to benefit from the national childcare scheme next year. The universal early childhood education programme will benefit more than 107,000 children in 2025. The new access and inclusion model, AIM, is enabling nearly 8,000 children with a disability to access meaningful participation in the early learning sector. That shows a real commitment to the young people of this country in a sector that for decades was given no statutory recognition. It is a lasting legacy of today's budget.

Sharon Keogan (Independent)
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Today's budget allocates expenditure of a staggering €105.4 billion, yet it offers very little for the average citizen or indigenous businesses. Where is the Government's support for the risk-takers, entrepreneurs and small business owners in this country? The hospitality sector, including our beloved restaurants, is left to fend for itself. The Government is not interested in assisting or empowering the many small and medium businesses across the country. The vintners' federations rightly labelled the budget a disaster for the pub sector, with VAT remaining at 13.5%. How many pubs and restaurants are to close because the Government has failed to protect vital jobs and businesses that are central to every town and village in the country? The president of the Irish Hotels Federation has stated: "The half-baked measures announced today will have almost no impact for businesses that are struggling with ever-increasing costs, much of which are a direct result of the Government's own economic policies." The speech today by the Minister, Deputy Chambers, focused heavily on the economic consequences of the Covid crisis over the past few years. No sector has suffered more greatly than the hospitality sector. This is the time when the Government should be supporting the sector. It has failed it immeasurably.

The budget also fails due to the lack of innovative or creative solutions to make our country and economy wealthier. Instead, we are presented with a surplus that would not exist without the millions of euro from Apple. This is not a budget. It is a lesson on how to buy an election with the public's own money. Does the Government think people are stupid? The repeated energy credits are a complete joke. Why give money to energy companies when legislation could be introduced to stop the price gouging? The legacy of the Green Party in government is to drive up energy costs even if it means our elderly are dying in the cold year after year. Ireland is the country with the highest energy prices in the EU. Go, the Government.

We are at an economic crisis point that requires radical and bold steps to support the Irish people. A State bank, for example, would have enabled people to access tax-free loans and pay 2% on the remainder of the loan up to 20 years. It would provide a long-needed economic stimulus that benefits the public and offers people the opportunity to thrive in the face of the biggest economic hurdle they face today. I refer, of course, to the housing and home ownership crisis. The help-to-buy scheme, which has been well accommodated in today's budget, focuses exclusively on new builds. A total of 5.1% of dwellings in Ireland are vacant. Where is the incentive for buyers or sellers in this regard? This budget could do a lot more to support and incentivise landlords' re-entry to the market, instead of properties lying vacant due to poor management by the Government of rent controls in rent pressure zones. The controls on rent are now incentivising rental properties to be left vacant for a minimum of two years. This shows the Government's lack of foresight and its inability see the downsides of its policies. Shamefully, the Government is content with nothing more than a short-term solution that appears to be supporting renters and workers when, in fact, it is making access to the rental and buying markets harder than ever before. We need comprehensive national infrastructure projects that will truly benefit our citizens. This is essential for any long-term vision by the Government to solve the housing crisis.

One must ask where the Irish people's fight has gone when we continue, year after year, to be failed and sold out by the Government. Our continental neighbours would not hesitate to strike and protest, forcing governments' co-operation with their needs. Industry and our citizens have been failed. Let me remind the Government that it is the citizens and their businesses that contribute every cent to the €105.4 billion in expenditure set out today. I am sickened by the continued monumental waste happening under the Government. Where does it end? The Government has abused its power and the trust of the people it was elected to manage. The budget does nothing for the people who need it most, including children with special needs fighting for school places and the children who need spinal surgeries. If the Government had given €1 billion to those children today, not one person in the nation would have cried about it. However, they were not even mentioned. It is time for change. I urge the Irish public to vote for change at the ballot box in the coming weeks. We deserve better governance and accountability. We deserve better.

Seán Kyne (Fine Gael)
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The total time allowed for statements is 90 minutes. I ask Members to confine themselves to three minutes each. There are four speakers remaining. Next is Senator O'Hara.

Mal O'Hara (Green Party)
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I will make this shorter, then. This is a somewhat surreal experience for me. For over ten years, I have been party-political, and that period has seen a polity in the North in which we have faced significant challenges. Therefore, it is welcome to see a budget that is very progressive. I would push back on some of the earlier commentary to the effect that it does little to help the most vulnerable. This budget is focused on the most vulnerable, and we will see its impact on people's household incomes and on those who will disproportionately benefit, namely those in the most deprived deciles. Let us be very clear about that.

For too long in the North, the reflex has been to blame the British and the British Government, not the people who have been in government for 26 years, for the challenges we face there. These challenges are writ large and I have talked about them before this House.

I commend the budget. We have managed to shepherd a healthy economy, in very challenging circumstances, through a global pandemic and also through war in Europe, which we did not envisage in our lifetime. We have also done so while reducing emissions significantly. This provides a counter-narrative to the idea that emissions cannot be reduced without having a healthy and successful economy. The budget and how we have arrived at this point are evidence of it.

The budget is progressive in that contains some of the green elements we have pushed for. The lesson of coalition is that you do not get everything you want but you get significant wins. For us Greens, we have seen the "baby boost", investment in a VAT reduction for heat pumps, free transport for under-nines, record investment in nature and heritage, HRT for women and the warmer homes schemes and retrofit schemes. These are significant in providing for the most vulnerable.

We accept there is more we need to do in housing but we are making significant progress. The consensus on how to move forward on the land hoarding tax is a key step in this regard and could potentially free up space for tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of housing units.

I am really pleased to see the commitment to maintaining reduced transport fees and additional funding for transport infrastructure. I wish the ambition were similar in the North.

We see a record budget for arts and culture. If this is the land of saints and scholars, we need to value our arts. I am glad to see that is reflected in the budget.

There is an opportunity, maybe through the Apple money, regarding the shared island initiative. We must co-operate on the areas of shared services, energy, transport, biodiversity and climate, and of course the development of infrastructure on an all-Ireland basis, recognising that the North has seen considerable underinvestment, in part because of the conflict, and that we must play our role in supporting it. I commend the budget.

Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for being with us today. We see measures worth close to €106 billion to support families. In my area, namely Roscommon–Galway, and in the west, there have been challenges owing to the cost of living. It is these that we see addressed in the budget. The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, acknowledged in the Dáil that there has been a 19% increase in the cost of living from 2021 until now. Families see this every time they go out to do their shopping. However, the measures put in place are to support affected families. We see one of the largest budgets ever, with €2.6 billion in social protection to help households.

In my area, I have worked so much with families crying out for home help and increases to home help hours. These ensure people can live independently for as long as they wish at home. Six hundred thousand more home help hours have been allocated, bringing the total to 24 million. There are more staff. We need more doctors and nurses to deliver the services, and we know there has been an increase. We have funded that increase. There are 30,000 more people working in our health service, bringing the number to 133,000.

As my party's education spokesperson in the Seanad, I am delighted to see the school meals programme. I hear about it, have advocated it and have encouraged our schools to apply for the pilots. So many schools have joined, and now all schools will have the opportunity to do so. I know what this means for parents. Never mind that they do not have the extra task of preparing school meals in the morning; they know their children get great school meals during the day. These are really positive measures that make such an impact on families' pockets and headspace.

There are now to be free schoolbooks up to leaving certificate level.

I have heard it mentioned here that nothing is being done in respect of special education. If the provision of 760 additional special education teachers and 1,600 more SNAs is doing nothing about special education, then I am left aghast. Five years ago, we had a couple of thousand SNAs, but we now have over 20,000 of them in our schools every single day. I meet people working as special needs assistants and know people doing the course in UCD to obtain a level 5 qualification. That is happening. There 20,000 more people working. The challenge is that we do not have enough. You cannot get people to work in certain roles. In hospitality, there is a struggle to get workers because there is now so much opportunity and choice.

One hundred and eighty thousand are now benefiting from childcare. Again, it is a question of capacity. I want to see what will happen regarding infrastructure and development through the building blocks grant. The Minister of State might be able to speak about when the building blocks grant will come out, because the funds have been allocated to support it.

Let me refer briefly to cost-of-living supports and the warmer homes scheme. I acknowledge that funding for the warmer homes scheme and for retrofitting is ten times greater than it was in 2019. The Acting Chairman will know very well that the housing profile in our area, in the west, is one of the worst, with only 85% of houses having attained a B2 rating. We need the warmer homes scheme and we need it to target areas under pressure. How are we going to have people living longer and independently in their homes if they are not insulated or retrofitted to allow them to do so? I welcome the measure in this regard.

Barry Ward (Fine Gael)
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I welcome this budget. Having listened to colleagues speaking, I am beginning to wonder whether they live in the same country as I do. Some of the statements from Senators on the other side of this House in the context of this debate are not just wrong but also extraordinary and misleading. That is not to say the budget is perfect – it is not – but there is an awful lot in it for every sector of society, which is to be welcomed.

I want to pay particular attention to the increase in the capital acquisitions tax threshold. That is really important. The Minister of State will agree with me that people, particularly those in our area, were unfairly targeted by the tax. It meant some had to sell their family homes rather than be allowed to continue to live in them. This was regrettable. We still have a distance to go to get back to where the tax was before the crash, but I welcome the increase in the threshold to €400,000. That is fair. This was not particularly expensive in the context of how much money it would cost the Government, but its individual impact is enormous. I welcome the changes.

I want to refer to the justice measures in the budget, particularly in the context of Vote 24 and the other Votes in this area. I am extraordinarily disappointed by the decision not to restore criminal legal aid fees. We have had this debate round and round. I understood there was acceptance at Government level that there is value to the criminal legal aid system. It is demonstrably the case, and any international comparison shows the taxpayer gets excellent value from the criminal legal aid fees paid to solicitors and barristers in this country. They have been cut and cut. Looking at the figures going back to September 2008, we see they are, de facto, down 28.5%. There was a restoration of 10% last January, and 8% will be restored this January. However, there is still a major deficit affecting those working in this area. The signal it sends to those working in our criminal courts is that they are not valued by the State or system, and that it is okay not to restore their pay despite the fact that their sector is the only one within the public sector that has not had a restoration. In September 2008, a 2.5% increase was not given, in March 2009 an 8% decrease was made, and in April 2010 another 8% decrease was made. That was the same for the rest of the public service but, in October 2011, a further 10% was taken away from criminal legal aid – unjustifiably, in my opinion. Only two of the cuts have been restored. What am I to say to people practising in this area who now tell me they cannot survive in it and need to work in another area of law?What am I to say to the victims whose trials are delayed because there are no lawyers available to run their trials? How can I justify that? It does not make sense. The reality is that I speak to lawyers at all levels all over this country who are incredibly frustrated. I am concerned that we are going to see a further withdrawal of services as we saw lawyers do reluctantly in the past year. Let us hope that does not happen. I would love to hear from the Minister of State some indication that the Government values the work that our criminal prosecution and defence lawyers do in criminal courts throughout this country.

Tom Clonan (Independent)
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I echo Senator Ward's concerns about criminal barristers and free legal aid. It is an issue that goes to our fundamental trust in the administration of justice. It is an index of society that is extremely important.

The Minister of State and I share an intimate understanding of the challenges posed by disability. I do not for one moment doubt his integrity and commitment to the circumstances that confront disabled Irish citizens and carers. For carers and social protection for disabled citizens, the word "underwhelming" has been repeated to describe the budget over the past hour or two. I welcome the home care tax credit increase of €150, the increase of €150 for single person childcare and so on. Apologies for my wording but I also welcome the increase of €300 to the incapacitated child tax credit. However, those measures do not speak to the fundamental human rights of disabled citizens and the concerns we have in that area, which I have raised repeatedly in this Chamber over the past two and a half years. We in Ireland are facing something of a crisis in respect of all of the measurable indices for quality of life and autonomy, and even health outcomes, if one looks at the waiting lists for children seeking surgery for scoliosis and so on. We are in crisis in that regard.

I hoped the Minister would see fit to end means testing for the carer's allowance and to end it completely for the disability allowance. We know from studies commissioned by the Department of Social Protection that these meagre allowances do not even meet the additional cost of having a disability in Ireland, which is estimated at between €12,000 and €16,000 per year. Notwithstanding the increase of €12, the disability allowance only comes to approximately €12,000. It does not even meet the extra cost, never mind putting food on the table or paying rent. I hoped for a more ambitious and radical change to the circumstances of disabled citizens in the budget. We have plenty of money. I was dismayed to hear that the Minister for public expenditure and reform clearly gave instructions in the run-up to the care referendum that there should be no wording in our Constitution that gives disabled citizens socioeconomic rights. I was very disappointed to hear and read that. It was a dark moment for me as a parent and carer. According to the Government's own campaign, disability rights are fundamental human rights. I hope that in what is left of the life of this Government, the Taoiseach does as he promised and fully ratifies the optional protocol to the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD. I hope that in future budgets, which the parties currently in power may be in a position to deliver after whatever happens next, we approach disability in a more ambitious and radical way.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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I thank Senators for their comments on the budget, all of which I have listened to carefully. Senator Garvey called out, for example, the payments for HRT and IVF. She also worries that there is not enough money for small businesses, which was also a theme in Senator Keogan's comments.

Senator Craughwell is interested in the Defence Forces and welcomes the 400 new members. He is worried, however, that the pay for higher ranks in the Defence Forces is out of line and that the pay is balanced towards the lower ranks, which may result in a difficulty with the retention of staff. He asks that the working time directive be applied to the Defence Forces and that the post-2013 pension scheme be re-examined for fairness. He also said specifically that we do not have primary radar. I noted that the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, said today that he is funding both primary radar and the monitoring of subsea cables. The Senator also said that there are no evacuation aircraft. My understanding is that we have two Airbus C295 evacuation aircraft, which we purchased last year for €230 million. Another model of evacuation aircraft is coming next year. We are advising citizens in Lebanon to leave immediately and not to rely on evacuation.

Senator Craughwell asked when the one-off cost-of-living payments are coming in. My understanding is that all payments will be paid before year end, apart from one of the electricity credits, which will be paid next year.

Senator Kyne mentioned the importance of investment in infrastructure to get a long-term benefit. He also mentioned the importance of investing in education, which is the best investment we can make. He also referred to the importance of investing in our water infrastructure, which is covered by the various infrastructure funds we have set up.

Senator Sherlock talked about the fact that there is not enough investment in retrofitting and solar energy, and in the skills for those things. We have multiplied by a great amount the money being invested in retrofitting. We are close to €500 million this year. Solar energy has gone from nothing to 1.5 GW this year. We did 1 GW last year and there will be another 1.5 GW next year. We will easily make our 8 GW target for 2030. You can see it everywhere. We are putting solar panels on every school in Ireland. The situation is changing dramatically. We are investing in the necessary skills. The Taoiseach, when he was the Minister for further and higher education, developed the green skills programme to train 3,000 people per year in green skills, such as installing solar panels and so on.

Senator Sherlock also drew attention to the payments we are making to alleviate child poverty. Through the qualified child allowance for people who are living on welfare, an additional payment for their children has been raised. There is also the working family payment for those who are on low wages. We did not increase child benefit, which is a universal payment. Instead, all of the money went into the targeted payments for people on low incomes, whether on welfare or on low wages. That was the right thing to do.

Senator Warfield is worried about emigration. I assure him that according to the data I looked at, more Irish people returned to Ireland in the past three years than left. We have large net inward migration and more babies are being born than there are people dying. Our population overall is growing in all respects. The minimum wage is going up by 80 cent per hour. I welcome the fact that the Senator's party has an alternative budget although I do not agree with it. It proposes the complete abolition of the USC. We have brought down the USC from 4% to 3% this year, following another cut last year. We have also changed the single rate cut-off point and the various personal allowances.

Senator Lombard mentioned tillage schemes, which he welcomes, and the addition of more investment for special education. He also pointed out the difficulty with school buses and forcing drivers to retire early.

Senator Keogan said there is nothing in the budget for small businesses or children with special needs. She will be relieved to hear that there is €170 million for energy subsidy payments targeted specifically at the hospitality and retail sector. That is significant. The Senator will also be relieved to hear that although she believes there is nothing for children with special needs, 768 additional special education teachers and 1,600 special needs assistants are being hired.

Senator O'Hara is experiencing a different type of budget from that he may have experienced in the North. He said that this is an opportunity for shared Ireland infrastructure, which is a good point. We should invest in transport and electricity infrastructure. Those things are going on.

Senator Dolan is happy with the increase in home help hours. That is all a part of the Government strategy to move away from the privatised nursing home model. Most people prefer to live in their homes, as far as possible, and that is what their families prefer too.The Senator also asked about the building block grant and when it is going to happen. I will have to come back with an accurate answer on that.

Senator Ward welcomed the increase in the inheritance threshold, as do I. He also pointed out that the criminal legal aid fees were cut a number of times but were not raised again. Although, of course, the stereotype for barristers is that they are all very rich and well paid, in fact the large majority of them are not on high wages. He has previously advocated for an increase in fees for lawyers and I will go back to-----

Barry Ward (Fine Gael)
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What I am asking for is restoration.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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I will go back to the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and discuss that with him. I am happy to engage with Senator Ward on that.

Senator Clonan said that the budget did not really speak to the fundamental human rights of people with a disability. A budget is an allocation of financial resources. We just get this long list of amounts of money that are being paid in different ways but there is that saying that a budget reveals one's values. There are large increases in disability supports, as I mentioned, for example, in special education and in the hiring of people for those areas. It may not feel like that specifically. Senator Clonan said he would like to see an end of means testing for carers' allowance and for disability allowance. Again we are back to the fundamental question as to what extent one puts money into universal benefits versus targeted benefits. The problem with targeted benefits is that they sometimes miss people. The problem with universal benefits is that we are not specifically concentrating the money on the people who might need it most. The Senator asked when the optional protocol for the UNCRPD will be implemented. I am happy to discuss that further with him.

Overall, I thank the Senators for their comments and commend the budget to the House. If anybody wants to discuss any of these issues with me, I am happy to do so.

Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State and the Members.