Ní aontaím in aon chor leis an méid atá ráite ag an Teachta. De réir na moltaí a bhí aici féin agus na polasaithe ag Sinn Féin maidir leis an gcáinaisnéis seo, bheadh costais maireachtála ag dul in airde dá mba rud é go gcuireadh i bhfeidhm iad.
Sentiment score: 0.00
If you look at Sinn Féin's alternative budget the bottom line is this, and this is not my calculation but the Central Bank's formula. It is spending €13.4 billion - more, in fact, if you add in its once-off measures - in its alternative budget. That budget would add 2.5% to the cost of living and to inflation.
Sentiment score: 0.00
It is absolutely true, and they have been going on for the past month about the cost of living.
Sentiment score: 0.48
Its budget, if you look at the Central Bank's formula for determining this, would have put up inflation and the cost of living by 2.5%.
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What I would say is that workers in this country want better water services, more houses, better public transport-----
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-----more roads and better road connectivity. They want better education services, better health services-----
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-----and Sinn Féin has gone full circle. I never thought I would hear the day when a Sinn Féin leader would be quoting the Fine Gael mantra about how "It is for those who get up early in the morning". That was at one time a slogan the Deputy would have decried and condemned in her day.
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The point is that we decided we would invest in the future of working people in this country-----
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-----that we would protect the jobs we have and then invest to make sure we have the jobs of tomorrow, through investment in research and development, through investment in energy, water, public transport, roads and so forth. We are doing that. That is what will underpin workers in their jobs. This is the first of five budgets, and we will be working on our taxation commitments in future budgets in respect-----
Sentiment score: 0.21
-----of those who are working, as we did in previous budgets. However, we also said-----
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-----we would prioritise child poverty, and this is a very progressive budget. If you look at the ESRI's SWITCH model, it is saying the two lowest income deciles get the most from this budget and a significant amount-----
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-----relative to others. That is what this budget is doing. I was determined to do it and I said in the House we would do it. It is the beginning of a process to get consistent poverty down-----
Sentiment score: -0.04
-----particularly among children. Look also at the child support payment. It is very significant. The over-12s has gone up by €16 and the under-12s by €8. That will benefit approximately 330,000 children in this country. It is moving in the direction of a second tier in supporting those most in need. For children, the €16 is now approximately €4,000 per annum. That is the amount for a child and family in the support payment now. That is significant. It is €3,000 for those under 12. For carers, there is a record 60% increase in the carer's allowance weekly income disregard. That is significant, going from €375 to €1,000. A single carer can now earn just above €54,000 per year and receive a full carer's payment. Income disregard for a couple increased by €750, to €2,000.
Sentiment score: 0.17
That means, therefore, that a person caring in a household where their partner earns up to €108,000 will receive a full carer's payment. These are the largest ever increases in the carer's income disregard.
Sentiment score: 0.11
On disability, there is substantial funding gone into the disability budget plus the domiciliary care allowance is up significantly.
Sentiment score: 0.61
I did say in the election that the enterprise economy-----
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-----infrastructure, child poverty and disability were my targets.
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There are tens of thousands of people in this country working in cafes and restaurants throughout the length and breadth of the country. They are workers. It is an industry under pressure.
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Studies show-----
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Studies show that increased labour costs did impact on those businesses.
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Deputies should not be so dismissive of the hospitality sector, as they are in their commentary, and likewise in terms of housing.
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We do need to narrow the viability gap. The Deputy is all bluff and bluster about housing-----
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-----but any time there is a solution that can contribute to housing-----
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-----Sinn Féin just knocks it and condemns it and sloganises it by saying it is a tax break for developers.
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It is not.
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What it is about-----
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I did not interrupt you, Deputy.
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I did not interrupt the leader of Deputy Doherty's party-----
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-----and he should stop heckling and shouting and being Mr. Angry all the time.
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The bottom line is this-----
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Well, maybe Sinn Féin's decision to sit it out and not have a candidate might have been a wise one after all, but anyway-----
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I will just say-----
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Sinn Féin does not-----
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A Cheann Comhairle, that is not good enough. We will either have-----
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I think we need fairness. I am not being allowed to answer.
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I have to disagree because in terms of the commitments we made in the election, we are following through on them very clearly in this budget.
Sentiment score: 0.22
Deputy Bacik avoided the whole area of child poverty.
Sentiment score: -0.69
She should welcome the move we have made in that regard. We have to do more, but there is a €300 million package alone for the lowest income. Look at the objective assessment. The Labour Party should acknowledge that the two lowest-income deciles will benefit the most from this budget. That is the reality. In terms of disability, there are significant increases in a range of payments, particularly the disability pension, but also in terms of the domiciliary care allowance, which is going up a further €20 on top of last year's increase, and that is right and proper. There is work under way in respect of the cost of disability. There is a huge increase in the disability budget this year. There is in the order of 20% of an increase in the disability budget in terms of the services for people with disabilities, and that is right and proper. We are going to continue to prioritise disability and child poverty. In terms of infrastructure, if we look at education investment in terms of more schools, that affects workers. They want their children to have access to education services. The capitation grants are going up by record levels. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, secured €50 in terms of primary and €20 in post primary. They are very significant on top of the increases we have had in previous years. That is all recognising the impact of the cost of living on schools and services. We have a rising population and we have an infrastructure deficit. The workers of this country need their jobs protected, and we need to be creating new types of jobs for the future. That is going to happen because of the investment we have committed to, which is more long term but we are doing it, in building the roads, hospitals and schools and in terms of investment in research and development. We did a lot in the late 1990s and early 2000s in research, which laid the foundations for jobs that we have today - high-quality, high-value jobs - both in foreign direct investment and in terms of the domestic economy. The measures in the budget on the taxation side for research and development and in terms of what the Minister, Deputy Lawless, has in his budget and the NDP, which is very much enhanced, will make a significant step change in research in this country. That guarantees jobs in the future. It does not guarantee votes in the short term, by the way, but it is the right thing to do for the country. It is the right thing to do. I am trying to move away from short-termism and in this first budget we want to lay foundations that will sustain the economy.
Sentiment score: 0.16
No, I said during the election that I wanted to maintain the enterprise economic model that we have, which Deputy Murphy resolutely opposed.
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That was a big choice in the election and people voted accordingly in terms of that fundamental principle.
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That is why we have invested in public services. This is a €9.4 billion budget. A lot of economists are saying it is too high and we should not be expending as much as we are spending.
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Sorry, that is what a lot of economists are saying to us. We disagree. We think the expenditure increase is in line with the basic premise of an expenditure rule, that this represents real growth of the economy-----
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-----and a change in price levels. That is the Government's position. It is a very substantial investment in public services. On the second tier, some of the models for the second tier would result in thousands of children losing out. What we have opted to do, in a more straightforward way, is to substantially and unprecedentedly, in terms of the scale of the increases the Minister, Deputy Calleary, put forward, increase the child support payment. It is quite substantial. We will grow that and, de facto, we essentially will have, in time, a second tier. That is the most straightforward and simple way to do it. It will be very impactful. On education, and health and disability services, there are substantial increases way above the rate of inflation for those services.
Sentiment score: 0.10
It is not a question of we cannot do everything. We have provided very effective measures in respect of child poverty in this budget, which the Deputy seems to have deliberately ignored. There is a weekly increase of €16 in the child support payment, to €78, for children aged 12 and over. That is now up to €4,056 per annum. There is a child support weekly increase of €8, to €58, for children aged under 12, which is up to €3,000 per annum. There is an increase of €10 in all core welfare rates, a €60 increase in weekly income thresholds for the working family payment for all family sizes. Families getting the working family payment will qualify for fuel allowance. There will be a €5 increase in fuel allowance per week from January. There is the back to school clothing and footwear allowance rate, which has been extended to children aged two and three who are eligible for that allowance. That is a whole series of measures that, cumulatively, will make an impact on consistent poverty. That is why we prioritised it in this budget. On the disability budget, there is a 20% increase in the allocation to core services. In respect of housing, there is a very significant lift for homelessness.
Sentiment score: 0.21
The Minister, Deputy Browne, sought that. The increase in allocation to enable 10,000 houses to be built, as opposed to any additional leases and so on, is also very significant. With respect, the Deputy cannot say it is about the market being king in terms of housing because the Government is the biggest single investor in housing at the moment.
Sentiment score: 0.33
Where I disagree with her is, if we want to get to 50,000 houses, we will need the private sector involved. We will. There is a tendency in the Opposition to decry builders or people who will have to build the houses. The bottom line is we have a problem with the viability of apartments. That is well known. There are 40,000 apartments with planning permissions, but they are not being built because the argument has been they cannot be built at a cost that would make it affordable for people to buy. A number of measures-----
Sentiment score: -0.12
-----the Minister has taken, in addition to the VAT-----
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-----will, combined, enable us to get apartments built. We need the private sector in-----
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-----to complement what the State is doing. The market is not king according to my philosophy because, in the past four to five years, we have substantially increased the State's investment in housing. This budget does so again with very significant increases.
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If we want to get to the level we want to get to, however, we absolutely have to have a combination of public sector investment in housing, along with private sector investment in housing.
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The Social Democrats' policies would, in our view, shut out completely the private sector-----
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-----contribution to the housing issue. On the cost of disability payment, as I said, we took steps to enhance the disability allocation by 20%. Also, the domiciliary care allowance is going up by €20 per month, which will be important for those families.
Sentiment score: 0.20
There are 177,000 people on disability allowance who will get a minimum of an extra €520 in 2026. There is an increase of €618 million in the disability budget. That is not a minor amount. It is a very significant increase. By the way, last year, the Social Democrats supported a VAT reduction for hospitality. They did. Yet, they come here today and say they are all against it. They voted against it last night.
Sentiment score: 0.15
You did. You said hospitality should be split between accommodation and food for a 9% VAT rate.
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On 9 November, that is the statement that was made.
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The Deputies come in here today and attack the Government for doing what they asked us to do the previous year. That is inconsistent.
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I could use worse language to describe it but I will not do that. It is essential for this country that we invest in our future and that is what we are doing. The capital budget is very significant here in terms of roads, energy and housing. We have allocated substantial funds.
Sentiment score: 0.11
I have to disagree with the Deputy. The VAT cut for the hospitality sector is overwhelmingly a support for small businesses and the businesses he talked about in Mallow and Glenville.
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I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan, could tell the Deputy about the impact the cut in hospitality VAT will have in west Cork, which his colleague, Deputy Collins, sought as well.
Sentiment score: 0.32
The Deputy needs to be consistent. Right throughout west Cork, there will be many cafés and restaurants thrilled with that decision because it will underpin jobs-----
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-----in those areas throughout.
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People go on about fast food chains and McDonald's. These are all franchises run by local people. Even though you see the McDonald's or Burger King sign, it is still local people employing young people and so on. That is what we are talking about. We are not talking about money for the big chains.
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We are talking about franchises. Deputy Murphy would not know much about it because he does not believe in business or enterprise.
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We have also kept the VAT on electricity and gas at 9%. That is a help to people. If it went back up, it would be a significant burden on people. We have chosen to invest strongly in public services, which will benefit everybody. There are five budgets to come. We did a lot on taxation during the previous three years and we will do more in the budgets to come as well in respect of taxation. Given what is happening in the world and the United States, with tariffs and so on, we need to protect the jobs we have now and into the future and we need to invest in infrastructure because the population is increasing significantly. On the carbon tax, we must look at the overall scheme of things. If we had allowed VAT to go to 13.5%, that would be big for people's gas and electricity bills. Equally, the revenue from carbon tax helps those in fuel poverty, helps us to have the biggest retrofitting programme for housing ever, which benefits workers and middle-income families. That is a very important retrofitting programme. It could not be financed otherwise on any sustainable basis. It also helps farmers through environmental farming schemes. If you took that funding away now, it would leave an enormous hole in the budget that would not fund what is desirable. The Deputy might disagree with me. I think climate is an issue that needs to be addressed. I genuinely do. We cannot ignore it and that is why I support it. We have to agree to disagree on that. In terms of working families, and particularly low-income working families, this budget does a lot. It cannot do everything in one budget but on the core issues of infrastructure, disability and child poverty, it makes very serious inroads and, in education and health, it does likewise.
Sentiment score: 0.14
Actually, I do not have a housekeeper. I never have had. I do shop every week myself. It is no big deal. I go to the Douglas market and the English Market. I have my routine. The price of food has gone up. It has gone up significantly. I acknowledge that, and that is why we decided to target those on the lowest incomes. We took a deliberate decision. As I said this before in the House, all the left wing parties wanted us to do universal payments. I am not saying the Deputy is left wing. They all wanted us to do universal payments. There was a time when those on the left wing would have favoured targeting. Fianna Fáil always had a social conscience.
Sentiment score: 0.01
Along with Fine Gael and the Independents in government, we said we wanted to prioritise investment in infrastructure and look after disability, not just in terms of the core disability services but education as well, with places and making sure we have a system where every child who needs a place will have it in September, as well as in terms of SNAs and so on, all of which are provided for.
Sentiment score: 0.82
Public services help everybody, workers as well as non-workers. That is an important principle we should not lose sight of.
Sentiment score: 0.53