Before I answer that question, I too want to take an opportunity to welcome the developments in relation to the Middle East overnight. I welcome the announcement that Israel and Hamas have now agreed on the first phase of a ceasefire and a peace deal for Gaza. We are now at a critical moment where we all hope and pray that we can see an end to this brutal, horrific humanitarian catastrophe, an end to the bloodshed, the killing and the famine. I also hope all the hostages are released. It is a day of hope for the people of Gaza after the darkest of times. This morning I directed my own officials to prepare for a substantial contribution and effort to Gaza to assist in the humanitarian effort that is going to be required immediately. Right now, a consignment of 1,500 tents is being loaded by the International Organization for Migration, IOM, in Amman today for delivery into Gaza in the coming days, including indeed 750 tents from Ireland's humanitarian stocks. We will not be found wanting in doing more as well. I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of the budget and of course completely reject the way in which he framed the budget. What he does not tell the people at home is that his alternative plan proposed 23 new taxes at a cost of €3.3 billion. In terms of economic impact - not in my view but in the view of anybody who can understand economics - that would have increased inflation in this country by spending €4 billion more. What happens when you increase inflation? You increase everybody's cost of living. In Sinn Féin's economically illiterate way of assisting people with the cost of living, it actually would have hurt people with the cost of living. That is why, when we had a general election, people rejected Sinn Féin's economic philosophy.
Sentiment score: 0.09
They said, "No, thank you very much." They also heard what we said and what Deputy Paschal Donohoe said during the general election as well, when we said, "Yes, we want to do measures on income tax", but we put in black and white in the programme for Government that if it was a choice between doing certain things or doing income tax we would choose the other things because we have to keep this country safe. The Deputy only asked me about tariffs once at Leaders' Questions. He never wants to discuss the economy or the global headwinds that the country faces. We have to keep our country safe. There are people watching in on this programme today who remember what it was like wrong choices were made in budgets. They remember what it was like when too much money was spent. They remember what it was like when people did not manage the country prudently. What we did in this budget was set out to deliver a five-year programme for Government, and it is a five-year programme for Government. The Deputy is conveniently picking up our programme for Government and saying, "Why have you not done in one year everything that you said you would do in five?" That is not how it works. We need to be honest here. What we have done is we have taken steps to help those most in need. To take the issue of fuel poverty, we extended the fuel allowance to 50,000 more people. We regularly discuss that issue. I am sure the Deputy welcomes that fact. We embedded a reduction in college fees permanently so that students will not have to wonder what the fees will be next year. It is now on a downward trajectory and that is embedded, and it has been extended to apprentices. We are going to deliver on the €200 per month per child commitment in the lifetime of this Government. That is what we said we would do; it is what Sinn Féin said it would do. It is what we all said we would do. However, we also have to make sure we deliver the capacity and that we have the places. That is why there are 21 commitments in the programme for Government and we are working through them already. In this budget, we actually delivered funding to significantly increase the number of childcare places. That is really important. I regret Sinn Féin did not do that in its alternative budget. Reducing the cost of childcare but not having childcare places is not much use to anybody. This budget is being completely misrepresented by Sinn Féin. It should look at what the CEO of Inclusion Ireland said yesterday morning when she welcomed the significant uplift in funding. There is over €680 million extra for disability services, €1.5 billion more for our health services, and more than €800 million more for our education system. The budget is investing in public services, targeting the resources at those who most need them, particularly at the issue of child poverty. I was disappointed at Sinn Féin's lack of ambition on the issue of child poverty. It would have done a hell of a lot less than we did. Let us look at what it said it would do on child support payments. It promised the people it would do €12.50 for under-12s. Its pre-budget submission only did €6. We delivered €8, so let us get real.
Sentiment score: 0.09
Try to be serious.
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Yes, when Sinn Féin thought it would win.
Sentiment score: 0.76
The Deputy should read the next bit.
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The Deputy should read the next bit.
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The Deputy should read the next bit.
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I am delighted that Sinn Féin is now in favour of reducing tax on work.
Sentiment score: 0.74
My party found that to be a lonely journey in the past several years-----
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-----as Sinn Féin opposed it every time we did it.
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Deputy Doherty might read the programme for Government, where it specifically says that if it comes to a choice between investment in public services or tax, we know which we will do.
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Now, Deputy Doherty talks about-----
Sentiment score: 0.00
I will use my time, if that is okay. Did the Deputy hear the town planner yesterday on "Morning Ireland" talk about how the measures we have taken will help more apartments to be built? Sinn Féin wants more homes to be built, but spends half its time objecting to them. It says it wants to treat housing as an emergency.
Sentiment score: 0.16
We treat it as an emergency, using the tax code to stimulate viability.
Sentiment score: 0.25
Sinn Féin proposed 23 new taxes, €3.3 billion more-----
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It would be a failure.
Sentiment score: -0.51
It is an alternative budget that would blow our economy. The people rejected it.
Sentiment score: -0.26
Thank you very much. We will keep this country safe.
Sentiment score: 0.40
We will develop and invest in our public services-----
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----- and deliver homes, and we will deliver our promises-----
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-----in the programme for Government over five years.
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The Deputy saying it is so, does not make it so.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I thank Deputy Kelly for highlighting this issue. I know he is using his personal experiences as an example but I want to extend my sympathy and that of everyone in the House for the bereavement his wife experienced recently and indeed the loss of his father. I also wish his mother our best. The generation of politicians who went before us gave an example of how to botch health reconfiguration. I genuinely believe the people of the mid-west were badly served by a reconfiguration that tried to change services on the promise of a better tomorrow, but did not put the better tomorrow in first. It is an example or case study of how not to do healthcare reconfiguration. If we are honest, since then, successive Governments have been trying to play catch-up on a variety of issues in the mid-west, particularly and acutely on the issue of bed capacity, but also on the issue of how to properly utilise Nenagh and Ennis hospitals, which are excellent hospitals that are eager to do more and are now beginning to do more. The Deputy has been a vocal advocate on this issue and will continue to be. I accept the collective challenge we face is to address this once and for all together. The Minister for Health takes this seriously. She will be in Limerick next week for the opening of a new 96-bed block at UHL. I acknowledge the roles the Deputy and others played in that. There are also plans to significantly increase capacity further in the hospital. We all welcome that, but what the Deputy is saying is that, in itself, is not enough. I accept that too. The HIQA report was commissioned, regardless of the Deputy's view on it. The Government was briefed on it by the Minister on 30 September. It outlines three potential options for consideration. One is to continue to expand the capacity at UHL's Dooradoyle site. I think we should do that anyway, to be honest. It is not either-or. The second is to extend the UHL hospital campus to comprise the existing Dooradoyle site and another site. The third is to develop a model 3 hospital in the HSE mid-west. Alongside these options, HIQA presented an extensive number of additional considerations. In fairness to HIQA, it did not just lob out three options. It went through, in quite a bit of detail, the pros and cons of each of the options. There are extensive findings. Quite a lot of work was done behind each of the potential options and the Minister will now fully consider them and report back to the Government. However, I will share the Deputy's recommendation with the Minister. There is a lot of logic in it. We need to drive on quickly with extra capacity. The 96 beds are great, but we need to drive on the next bit and the bit after that and so on and then we need to recognise that in itself will not be enough. There is a compelling case in relation to the option identified in the report around a new level 3 hospital for the mid-west. That needs to be looked into. We all know that will not happen today or tomorrow so how do we make sure we put the capacity in in the meantime? I will ask the Minister to keep the Deputy and colleagues from the mid-west informed on this issue as she deliberates.
Sentiment score: 0.18
I thank the Deputy. I accept the Government needs to make a timely decision on this and I accept it is an issue that has gone on for many years. In fairness to the Minister for Health, she is proactively engaging on this issue. The point the Deputy makes about population is really key. He is correct that the population of the mid-west region is growing faster than the population of many other regions, including other regions that have a greater hospital capacity. That is absolutely factually correct. When one looks at the three options, I do not really think there are three. There is to do one obvious thing, which is to expand capacity and then there is a choice between two others. That is how I read it.
Sentiment score: 0.24
We all agree with expanding capacity. Then there is the question of whether we further expand the UHL campus but also develop it on another site - that is what it says - or, for want of a less colloquial phrase, do we start from scratch and develop a new model 3 hospital? Both options recognise that there will have to be significant new healthcare capacity above and beyond the current Dooradoyle site. How quickly we can narrow down the pros and cons of each of them is very important. The Minister will be in UHL with the HSE and local public representatives next week and she will have the opportunity to speak with the Deputy then. I take the point about the need to make a decision in principle as quickly as we possibly can.
Sentiment score: 0.25
First, I share the Deputy’s condemnation of what happened to our five Irish citizens. I have just received confirmation that Deputy Heneghan is back in Ireland. I had a brief message from him to that effect. It seems Israel released parliamentarians first. I know he is Deputy O’Callaghan’s constituency colleague. He is back in Ireland but the remaining Irish citizens will be engaging with our embassy team today. Obviously we are calling for their swift release. We believe it was illegal in terms of how they were detained and I do intend to consider how to pursue that with counterparts. I join the Deputy in welcoming the very real live prospect of a ceasefire and the fact the United Nations has talked about there being enough food in the region to feed the people of Gaza for three months if we can just get that in and do so urgently. Our aid people will be endeavouring to assist in that. On college fees and many issues, we were very clear during the election campaign that we were moving back to a one annual budget process. That meant that the one-off measures between September and Christmas were going to be replaced with an annual budget and that we would seek to embed permanent, sustainable, affordable cuts to a number of areas, including education, the cost for business and a variety of other areas. The measure we have taken on student fees is the first instalment of five. I remain committed to the very strong views I have in relation to the cost of education and college fees. We intend to build on that further in the time ahead. Other decisions we made, like extending the renters tax credit which was due to expire this year at a cost of €350 million a year, will directly benefit and help students. I appreciate we have different views on the measures we have taken around apartments and tax but I believe it is an important viability measure. We will see who is right in time. We have listened to a lot of people in terms of the viability gap. We have taken a number of measures to try to close that gap because there are tens of thousands of apartments with active planning permission today that are not being built and we need them built. We all want more housing supply. On disability, the Minister for Social Protection has been clear he is working on developing a cost of disability payment. We would like to see that in place for the next budget. However, this year’s budget did see objectively a step change in the investment in disability services. That has been recognised by the likes of Inclusion Ireland. The extra funding of €628 million for disability services from the Minister, Deputy Foley and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, is an important step forward and will make a real difference. On childcare, we have taken a number of measures. The commitment was to produce a plan within 100 days. All these things were going to be done as part of the budget.
Sentiment score: 0.17
It is absolutely what I said in the manifesto and I talked about it an awful lot. Every party in this Dáil gave that commitment and we stand by that commitment. However, we have outlined a record budget for childcare of €1.5 billion. The national childcare scheme is now funded for an additional 35,000 children next year. There is a 14% increase in the number of children benefitting. In the coming months, the Minister will set out plans for a new maximum fee-cap set from next September. That will benefit people with the costs. This will reduce costs for families paying the highest fees. That is where we should start. The Minister and Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, have signed off on a 10% increase in the minimum rate of pay for educators that takes effect next Monday. That is helping to ensure we have people working in childcare facilities to mind our children and educate them. There is also funding for further pay increases for their staff next year as well and we extended the back to school clothing and footwear payment to preschool for the first time ever, benefitting the children most in need along with a range of childcare measures. The commitment remains and the commitment will be delivered on.
Sentiment score: 0.27
We are already acting. That is why it is important that parents know. If the Deputy is saying that parents do not follow this, then I completely disagree. Let parents watching know this: the budget we just delivered provided funding for 35,000-----
Sentiment score: -0.06
The Deputy said that people do not read election manifestoes in detail but I think people watch these things very closely.
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The Irish electorate are sophisticated. Funding for an additional 35,000 places has been provided. A cap will be put in place for next September for those with the highest fees. We are extending the footwear and clothing allowance for the first time to children in preschool. I am sure this is something that the Social Democrats must support but did not fund in their alternative budget. The electorate do listen to what people say in elections.
Sentiment score: 0.15
They listened when the leader of the Social Democrats promised that VAT for the hospitality sector would be set at 9% and then walked away from it.
Sentiment score: 0.36
This is because the Social Democrats do not believe that cafés in my constituency - in Greystones, Delgany or Bray - deserve the VAT cut that they promised during the election and which they are now walking away from. There is a pub-----
Sentiment score: 0.05
I can produce the image. The Social Democrats are going to vote against a measure to help with jobs in towns and villages across Ireland and I do not think that was very good thing to do.
Sentiment score: 0.35
I will not accept that at all. I will accept that we will do what we promised the people we were going to do to in the general election. Not too many of us in here, including myself, have had to lie awake at night wondering how we are going to pay the wage bill. Not many of us have to wonder that if we get sick and cannot run the café where our income is going to come from. Not too many of us have had to worry about the insurance cost of running a small business. In general, people come in here with good ideas about how they are going to come up with new policies that will increase costs for small- and medium-sized businesses. That is fine if that is what they want to do, but it is not the politics we practice. The services in this country - education, health, social welfare, pensions, carers, our salaries - are all funded on the back of people who run businesses. Breaking news: enterprise and creating profits are good things. Employing people is a really good thing.
Sentiment score: 0.13
We have very different economic ideology and I will not debate that in the two minutes available to me. As the Deputy rightly said, 75% of the businesses in the hospitality sector employ fewer than ten people. If I walked around the Deputy's constituency with him, which I would be happy to do some time, it would be a brave politician who stood on the floor of the shop, café, restaurant or pub that is opening to do a bit of lunch for the local community and tell it that everything is flaithiúlach and grand and that it does not need the bit of assistance. The Deputy knows how European VAT-----
Sentiment score: 0.22
No, it would not. To be clear in case Deputy Newsome Drennan has not read her own party's alternative budget, Sinn Féin proposed this as well, so Sinn Féin is in favour of this and agrees with us on this one. The rate of 9% is supported by Sinn Féin as well, so I thank her for that support. Deputy Healy does not support it and that is his right. On balance, we think this is the right thing to do. Some 191,000 people are employed in this sector directly in 20,000 businesses. The Deputy is right, some of them are large businesses and that is the same when any measure is introduced. Seventy five percent are not, with only 0.4% classified as large companies. Even the large businesses, heaven forbid, create good jobs as well, in every town, city and village. These jobs often lift people out of poverty because the best way to do so is to get them a job. Many of the large companies that I have heard mentioned in this House in recent days are franchises run by Irish people. They are Irish owned and, yet again, they create jobs. Too many people in this House are taking job creation for granted. I remember that when I first got elected to the Dáil, it was hard to get a job in this country. We are back at full employment and we have to make sure we back businesses and reduce their cost bases. This is a practical measure. We are not reducing it for just a year or two. This is a permanent reduction to reassure business owners across the country in the hospitality sector that we have their backs and are reducing their cost bases and to drive on and keep and grow those jobs in towns and villages around the country.
Sentiment score: 0.19
We are not going to agree on this, so no, the Government does not intend to reverse the commitment it gave and is delivering on, but it needs to be seen in context. This is an important measure to back business and jobs in regional and rural Ireland. It is also just one of a number of measures. The budget allocated a hell of a lot more to childcare, disability, education and health than it did to this measure. In addition, we have also taken very important measures to protect those most in need. The minimum wage will increase for 200,000 workers. All workers will now have an automatic entitlement to a pension as auto-enrolment begins. We are continuing to drive down the cost of education. We are moving towards the abolition of the carer's means test. I reject out of hand what Deputy Healy said about that because we took the first step in the budget, with an increase in thresholds to €1,000 for a single person carer and €2,000 for a couple.
Sentiment score: 0.07
Please do not mislead carers. Family carers deserve to know the truth and this is the truth. We have frozen VAT at 9% for gas and electricity for the next five years and we are making sure an extra 50,000 households throughout the country will benefit from the fuel allowance. We are extending the renter's tax credit. We have the back of Irish people and the back of businesses. Crucially, the measures in the budget most proportionately favour the most vulnerable in our society and that is the way it should be.
Sentiment score: 0.36