Hear, hear.

Sentiment score: 0.00

Today the Government has made it very clear that nothing will change for working people who are absolutely put to the pin of their collar trying to make ends meet. Rents will continue to rise. Childcare will still be unaffordable and unattainable for many and the income of working people will fall in real terms because the Government's tax package does nothing for ordinary workers. The Government tells us that its budget is pro-investment. However, what it actually means is that it is cutting taxes for the elites, all the while failing to deliver the public investment that our economy desperately needs. The reality is that none of this will surprise many of us because the first actions of this Government told us exactly who its members sought to represent in this new Dáil term and that was themselves. The very first actions of this Government showed it was here to feather its own nest, and that it did. The very first actions it took and the very first Bill it brought forward in this Dáil was to increase the number of super junior Ministers and the wages of Ministers of State. Clearly the cost-of-living crisis was biting on the poor Ministers of State. This time last year, we were preparing for a general election and, my God, what a different time that was. The Government had so many promises of all the things it would do, how many houses it would build and deliver - all empty promises and all leading to very little action. Fine Gael told us that it would be giving our children the best start in life. With one in five children in poverty and over 5,000 children in homelessness, it is an absolute disgrace not to deliver on that. The Fianna Fáil manifesto told us that it would help families cope with high prices. Instead, there is no cost-of-living package and, in fact, it is increasing their costs. Some 300,000 households are already in debt over electricity prices and the removal of energy supports will only increase that further. Of course, this time last year we did not have the Lowry party - it was not even in existence - but I do not recall any of those Independents campaigning for increases in the carbon tax. In fact, Michael Lowry blamed the imposition of carbon tax on the insistence of the Green Party. The Government cannot blame the Green Party for that now. It is the Government that is implementing those increases now.

Sentiment score: 0.12

Let us look at what the Ministers have presented here today. This €9.4 billion budget package is a rip-off. There is nothing in this budget for working people and families. It ends energy credit supports, increases income taxes in real terms and hikes student fees. At the same time, this budget has one of the biggest tax packages in history, giving away lavish tax cuts to the richest in our society. Instead, the Government could be guaranteeing that working people and families had access to affordable housing, groceries and childcare. That would be the sign of a strong and functioning economy. It is increasing costs on workers and families while refusing to provide the supports they need and continuing to waste their tax money. From bike shelters to security huts that cost more than homes to a children's hospital, still not delivered and costing more and more with every passing month, the wastage of public money is seen across every Department. This includes the colossal sums being spent on a dysfunctional IPAS system, a system that has seen costs soar from the millions of euro to the hundreds of millions and into the billions, enriching a new crony class at the expense of local communities and the taxpayers whom the Government has kicked in the teeth with today's budget. Housing is the biggest crisis facing all families across the State. The Government continually insists that housing is its number one priority but its actions speak far louder than words. Its first action after feathering its nest was to raise rents. In the middle of a housing emergency, that is absolutely unforgivable. At times, I really wonder if it is actually trying to make this housing crisis worse. I have been an elected representative for 11 years and I have never seen it as bad as I see it today. If that is what the Government's aim is, then it is actually succeeding, so maith sibh ar sin. Every year, this crisis gets worse under the policies and budgetary decisions that it implements. Before the general election, it was hell-bent on telling us that it would hit the target of 40,000 houses last year, knowing fine well from information that was given to it that this target would be missed. The Central Bank predicts that it will continue to miss housing targets for the next three years. Not only are the targets not being met, but there is no real ambition in the targets that it set and there is no increase in affordable or social housing targets today. The Government's Housing Commission has acknowledged that only a radical strategic reset of housing policy will work, but what does this budget deliver? It delivers more of the same policy solutions that have worsened the housing crisis, a pathetic package of ineffective tax cuts and minor regulatory changes that waste millions of euro of public money. Our alternative budget and housing strategy offer real ambition and investment to arrest the housing crisis. They detail a concrete plan for the radical reset of housing policy so desperately needed. What we needed from the Ministers today was an increase in affordable and social homes so that, finally, people could access secure, affordable accommodation. What we and renters needed was a three-year ban on rent increases so that the renter's tax credit did not continue to be inflationary. Instead, the Government's entire housing policy is written with and for landlords and developers. It has given landlords free rein to set rent prices. It has slashed the design standards for apartments and is now cutting tax on apartments. These changes are only creating one kind of home: built-to-rent apartment blocks with flats that are smaller, darker and increasingly more expensive. These high-density, high-cost and low-quality blocks of apartments owned by international investment funds are a symptom of a broken housing system. They are the manifestation of a rudimentary understanding of economics where housing delivery is only viewed in terms of supply and demand, and housing is now a financial asset, not a home. People having a home of their own should not be a luxury; it should be a fundamental human right. We need good-quality, secure and affordable homes that meet people's needs in terms of size, space, light, accessibility and proximity to work. We desperately need a balanced housing system, one with an adequate number of social and affordable homes alongside a private rental sector and home ownership within reach of working people. The Government should be building enough public homes to meet the need for social and affordable housing. It should be freezing rents for three years alongside increasing renters' tax relief. It should activate the small- and medium-sized builder-developer sector to deliver more quality homes for working people to buy at moderate prices. That is what a sound economy is built on. Homelessness is at shocking levels. There are 5,000 children in homelessness and neither of the Ministers mentioned homelessness in his speech today.

Sentiment score: -0.09

That is outrageous. How that can be done is unconscionable. The fact that the two Ministers delivered the policies of today and did not mention homelessness is beyond belief, but it is probably not beyond the belief of all those people who are in homelessness because that is what they expect. Homelessness is not an inevitability; it is the result of having a weak, broken housing system that fails to meet the basic needs and fundamental human rights of our people. It should not be seen as inevitable. It should not be something that we become desensitised to. It is not good enough that even more children will be in emergency accommodation this Christmas. To our great shame, we have an epidemic when it comes to domestic abuse in this country. Every week in my clinics, women disclose domestic violence to me. While it is good that more women are coming forward, I am repeatedly shocked at the institutional barriers that are placed in the way of women leaving domestic abuse. There are still nine counties in this State that do not have a domestic violence refuge. The reality is that our refuges are bursting at the seams because it is nearly impossible to find an alternative safe secure home when trying to leave those shelters. That is the reality despite knowing that there is an increase in demand. We know that from Women's Aid, which has told us that there was a 12% increase in demand for front-line services. That block in terms of housing is huge. Progress is slow and without the urgency that is essential, one in three women will continue to experience psychological, physical and-or sexual abuse from an intimate partner. That figure just shows that this is everywhere. We all know people who have been impacted by this. We need to take a leadership role in tackling this and calling it out. We need increased funding but we also need to make legislative changes that would make a world of a difference. There are simple changes that can be made. Many councils do not deal with women who have left abusive relationships as a category under their hardship terms. That should be a no-brainer. I have dealt with a woman who spent years on the council list in one county and when she moved to her home county as a direct result of domestic violence, her years were wiped because people cannot bring their years across county boundaries even in cases where their lives are literally on the line due to domestic violence. She had to start from the beginning and now she and her children are in emergency accommodation with no prospect of being offered a home. These are things the Government could and should change, but it has chosen not to. Tá an Ghaeltacht fágtha arís eile in áit na leathphingine ag an Rialtas. Tá géarchéim sa Ghaeltacht. Tá easpa tithíochta inti agus buninfreastruchtúr atá i ndrochchaoi. Níl áit le ceannach, le tógáil nó ar fáil ar cíos sa Ghaeltacht. Tá ar ár ndaoine óga an Ghaeltacht a fhágáil mar nach bhfuil áit ar bith le cónaí acu. Is daoine muiníneacha iad seo atá ag iarraidh saol a chaitheamh trí mheán na Gaeilge agus a gcuid teaghlach a thógáil sa chaoi céanna, ach níl aon rud ag athrú i dtéarmaí tithíochta. Níl an toil ann. Níl na dréacht-treoirlínte pleanála don Ghaeltacht foilsithe fiú. Cé go raibh sé seo geallta roinnt uaireanta le blianta anuas, níl siad foilsithe. Caithfear iad a fhoilsiú agus a phlé. Tá an Rialtas ag maíomh as €36 milliún sa bhreis a sholáthar do bhuiséad na Gaeltachta. Nuair a dhéantar tochailt air sin, áfach, níl ach €11 milliún breise do bheartais nua luaite ag an Rialtas, i bhfad níos lú ná an méid a theastaíonn ón phlean fáis don teanga de chuid Chonradh na Gaeilge. Is cosúil gur cur i gcéill atá sna milliúin eile. Tá an Rialtas ag déanamh athrá ar thograí caipitil a bhí geallta cheana féin. Níl ach €2.5 milliún suarach le dul i dtreo Údarás na Gaeltachta. Teastaíonn infheistíocht de €11 milliún don údarás chun dul i ngleic le cúrsaí tithíochta agus an fhadhb infreastruchtúir, chomh maith le forbairt na Gaeilge mar theanga phobail. Tá an fhadhb infreastruchtúir chomh mór sin nach bhfuil suíomhanna ar fáil leis na seirbhísí cuí a sholáthar chun tithe a thógáil. Tá bóithre ag titim as a chéile de bharr creimthe, cáblaí fós ar an dtalamh tar éis na Stoirme Éowyn agus droichid atá dainséarach de bharr easpa infheistíochta. Chun ár dteanga a chaomhnú, caithfidh an chéad ghlúin eile a bheith in ann cónaí sa Ghaeltacht. Ciallaíonn sé sin go dteastaíonn tithíocht, ach tá cúnamh eile de dhíth freisin. Caithfear scéim labhairt na Gaeilge a thabhairt ar ais agus tá sé thar am go dtabharfar an t-airgead atá tuilte ag mná tí dóibh. Teastaíonn tithíocht, buninfreastruchtúr agus poist mhaithe sa Ghaeltacht. Is iad sin atá ag teastáil chun an Ghaeltacht a fhás agus a choinneáil bríomhar. Today, there are 510 people lying on hospital trolleys, 84 of whom are in University Hospital Limerick, with 64 in my local hospital in Galway. I am sure many of us have been in accident and emergency departments recently and we have seen what it is like. Many of those people are lying in corridors that are bright, cramped and noisy. They are in conditions with zero privacy. I always think it would be difficult enough for people who are in the prime of their health to sleep in such conditions but for those who are not feeling well, who are in pain and who are extremely worried about their health, it is incredibly difficult, if not impossible. People and families are tired of having to fight for things they should be entitled to, things that would make their health journey just that bit easier - for example, people struggling for years with high medical costs trying to get a medical card but being refused time and again. While all parties have signed up to Sláintecare, it is clear from budget to budget that there is just no consensus on universal healthcare. This budget will not deliver affordable and accessible public healthcare. The reality is that families cannot wait any longer. We need better and more affordable access to medical care. That, if anything, should be a basic fundamental right. When a person becomes ill, he or she should have access to healthcare. Unfortunately, every year, Ministers stand here and promise us more and more. They act like the penny has finally dropped, that they will change things and that it is going to be better. The reality is that the reason things do not change is because of the decisions made here today but also because sums tend not to add up. Last year the Government launched a plan for 3,000 additional hospital beds by 2031 but it has not accounted for them. It promised elective hospitals again and again but where are they being accounted for? What the Government has laid out in capital falls short and will continue to fall short. What the Government should be telling us today is what it has decided not to deliver. Is it the elective hospital in Galway that will not make the cut this decade? While we are blessed with fantastic staff, they are working in very difficult conditions. We need to invest in those conditions. We have staff who work in the most difficult conditions in our hospitals and they need to be supported. The Government’s recruitment embargo did exactly what it said on the tin. It halted recruitment and we are still unable to catch up as a result, with recruitment figures being half of what they were before the embargo. We need to be ambitious in our targets. We must increase the number of university places, abolish graduate entry medicine fees, double health and social care places at third level and make it far easier and more attractive for young people, our young medical professionals who are abroad, to come home, work in our health service and build a life here. To be honest, what I was expecting today was to see a clear commitment to women with endometriosis but it seems the Government has committed nothing to endometriosis care in the budget. Let me repeat that the Government seems to have committed nothing to the women who are in pain and are suffering with endometriosis and who are without access to adequate services. There should have been a clear commitment of €20 million to develop world-class endometriosis services. The Government is treating women’s healthcare as an item for export. This needs to end. We need to be serious about women’s healthcare. We need to ensure women are supported from adolescence to menopause and beyond. We need to structure and tailor healthcare needs based on each individual woman and their healthcare requirements. Women should not feel forced to campaign about their endometriosis and tell their very personal stories to get the Government to invest in endometriosis care; it should be doing that anyway. The only message this budget seems to send is that they will still have to continue campaigning. This should be from a different time, not from now. Every family has been touched by mental health difficulties and illnesses. Physical and mental health need to be treated equally. We need to treat it as the emergency that it is and move to universal access to community-based therapy, counselling and support, alongside addressing the crisis in emergency and acute services. If people want to know how much the Government cares about mental health, they will only need to see that it copied and pasted the mental health section from last year’s budget and changed seven words. No one in crisis should be turned away or told to wait until the morning for access to emergency mental healthcare. Mental health is 24-7; it is not just from nine to five. Our services must reflect that reality.

Sentiment score: -0.06

There is no clarity in this budget about what the Government will actually do to improve mental health services, both for older and younger people.

Sentiment score: 0.53

Access to services should be based on need and not where people live or their ability to pay privately. That is not the case for so many, however. It is certainly not the case for the people who have an eating disorder and need inpatient care. We still only have three specialist public inpatient beds for adults, and they are largely based on where a person lives. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental health illness. Sending people abroad or relying on private healthcare is not the solution we need. People need inpatient beds. All that this budget delivered was a token reference to eating disorders, nothing more than those words. We must also provide perinatal care, a place where a mother and baby can be together in cases of post-natal psychosis. Currently, there is no dedicated mother and baby perinatal mental health unit on this island. This means that mothers, North and South, who need to be admitted for inpatient care are separated from their newborns. We need a specialist all-island unit. There is so much talk of the economy today, although there is also talk about other things. When we talk about the economy, we need to think about what the economy is. An economy is made up of the people who live in it. The future of that economy is the children who are raised in it, and they are being failed. Childcare is an essential service, not just for families but also for the economy. Almost half of one-parent households with children live in deprivation. Access to affordable, quality childcare is one of the key factors to take children out of poverty. Parents in this State pay among the highest costs for childcare in the OECD. These high childcare costs are forcing families into poverty. They are forcing women out of the workforce or preventing them from returning to it. The Government presumably recognises this given the fact that both parties promised to deliver €10 per day childcare in the run-up to last year’s general election. There has been no mention of that today, however, and the Government has squandered the opportunity to deliver it. The Government has done very little to increase capacity at a time when tens of thousands of children have no childcare place. It could have adopted Sinn Féin’s detailed childcare plan that would cap childcare costs at €10 per day, which it seemed to think was absolutely fantastic last year, but not so much this year. Such a policy would transform the lives of thousands of families up and down the country. Investing in childcare is good for the economy, parents and the educational outcomes of our children. When we look at the here and now and what our economy will bring, we have to look at our young people and what kind of society we are giving them. It is outrageous, when the State is as wealthy as it is now, that three out of five young people are considering emigrating, with more than 80% of young people saying they believe they would actually have a higher standard of living abroad. Given the wealth in this State, that is outrageous. Young people deserve the opportunity to build a good, secure life in their own country. The Government has forced a generation to choose between living with their parents well into adulthood or moving abroad and leaving their families, friends - although a lot of their friends are abroad - and communities behind. This is a national disgrace. Most young people will watch today in the hope that maybe they have been listened to and that there is something in the budget for them because the Government has seen that they are struggling and that it is not fair that they are forced to go to Australia or other countries. Can the Ministers imagine how deflating and frustrating it is for people to think they will never be able to afford their own home? Students will look at this budget and see that it will make life harder for them by increasing the cost of higher education while continuing to rely on expensive, luxury student accommodation owned by international investment funds rather than simple, good-quality homes, which is what is needed. So often in recent years I have heard it stated by those on the benches opposite that student fees would be scrapped. Instead, the Government has chosen to hike them by €500. We are clear that student fees must be abolished. While there is often big talk about apprenticeships by the Government, the reality is that apprentices have to wait too long to get their off-the-job training. As a result, it takes them months or even years longer to complete apprenticeships than should be the case. At the same time, their wages stagnate. Apprenticeship fees must be abolished. Our farms are part of the fabric of rural Ireland and a critical piece of our economy. Recent developments in agriculture, particularly in the context of the EU's deal with Mercosur coming down the line and a 22% cut to the CAP budget, will have a negative effect on future farm incomes. One of the biggest challenges for Irish farming is generational renewal. The Government had an opportunity to show the next generation of farmers that there is a future in Irish agriculture by funding a generational renewal scheme, but it failed to do that. It has not done enough to support farmers, particularly smaller farmers and those with family farms, who have faced a crisis regarding the spread of tuberculosis. The Government should investigate anti-competitive practices to ensure fair and stable prices for farmers, increase suckler and sheep improvement scheme payments and invest in an accelerated testing and vaccination programme to tackle TB, which is at its highest level since the 1990s. Last weekend, we had Storm Amy. When you come from the west of Ireland, a storm means something serious. We all experienced Storm Éowyn and its aftermath. One thing we know for certain is that the climate crisis is worsening and that the frequency of climate-induced natural disasters is increasing. Storm Éowyn brought the west of Ireland to a halt. That happened after decades of neglect on the part of successive Governments. That results of that neglect came home to roost, with basic infrastructure not fit for purpose. It is certainly not fit for the changing weather. To be clear, there are still cables on the ground as a result of Storm Éowyn and Storm Darragh. Last weekend, we saw a strong weather event in the form of Storm Amy. There is little doubt we will see more such storms over the coming months. Instead of assisting the communities that have been affected, the Government has chosen to place the burden of bearing the cost of those storms directly on the people. In this budget, the Government had the opportunity to stand up to the big polluters. It could have introduced a pollution tax on private jets and ended our reliance on fossil fuels by investing in strong public renewable energy infrastructure. Instead, it has pushed the cost of climate measures onto workers and families through regressive and divisive policies such as carbon taxation. The carbon taxes outlined in the budget are inherently unjust. They increase the cost of essential travel without providing any alternative vital public transport infrastructure. They represent an unjust, failed and technocratic approach to environmental policy and make existing social and economic inequalities worse. Climate and environmental policies should benefit all of society. Realistically, we will only achieve our climate goals if all working people and families are part of the just transition. Instead, the Government - surprisingly backed by Independents from rural areas - has made it more expensive for people in rural areas to travel to work, to make essential appointments and simply to live.

Sentiment score: -0.01

As the Government well knows, its exclusive retrofit scheme is out of the reach of many, particularly people who are living in energy poverty and all those with homes that were seriously damaged during Storm Éowyn and that remain extremely cold as a result. The Government should replace the current scheme with a tiered and targeted vision that would allow people on middle and low incomes to retrofit their homes and reduce their energy bills. Since I was elected to this House, one of the big things that happens every winter is that we discuss the horrific situation of how energy poverty is impacting on our pensioners. I previously related the story of a man who came to me and explained that he was sleeping in his kitchen because it was the only room in the house he could afford to heat. Rightly, there is outrage when that story is told. What changes? Nothing actually changes, and I am sure we will hear similar stories again. Outrage without implementing anything to change things is faux outrage. We can all see through it. One of the favoured phrases that I hear every week at Leaders' Questions, particularly from An Taoiseach, is that we do not have ownership of compassion. No, we do not. However, the Government has the power to change things and it chooses not to.

Sentiment score: -0.11

Households continue to subsidise data centres' electricity bills through the PSO levy. The burden is due to get bigger because the Government refuses to change its unfair approach. This budget is a missed opportunity to end our over-reliance on fossil fuels. Renewable sources such as offshore wind provide cheaper, more reliable and sustainable energy that will protect us in a volatile global market, but this needs to be done collaboratively with local communities and to the benefit of those communities. The idea there is no knock-on impact on a local area makes no sense. Like many of the Government's policies, this has become divisive. I sometimes begin to think that this may be on purpose. In just over two weeks' time, we will elect a new Uachtarán na hÉireann, a President of Ireland. There are now just two continuing candidates on the ballot paper. Thousands of Irish citizens will not be able to vote because they live in the Six Counties. How there has been no attempt on the part of the Government to right this wrong in time for this election is beyond me. That those who are Irish citizens and who live in Ireland are unable to vote in an election for Irish President is simply wrong. Bunreacht na hÉireann makes it clear that unity is the will of the nation, yet the Government refuses to plan, prepare or advocate for it. The Good Friday Agreement enshrines the right to national self-determination, placing the democratic future of the island in the hands of the people. By refusing to engage in the discussion, the Government is undermining the democratic promise of the agreement and failing to progress the will of the nation. Building a new and united Ireland is the most important task for a generation. We should not under any circumstances allow our society to sleepwalk into referendums we are not fully prepared for. We are clear that citizens' assemblies on a united Ireland must be established immediately. Just as the Government seems blind to the realities of today, it is also blind to the opportunities of our future. The prospect that all of us can collaboratively build a new Ireland should excite those in government. It should get them out of bed in the morning and make them think "What can we achieve?" Doing as I describe can benefit all the people of Ireland, our society and our economy. All these are positive things, but those in government seem to have blinkers on. Today's budget was an opportunity to build on that and to tackle head-on the issues of the day in order that this State can fully realise its potential. The housing crisis can be solved and we can ensure a place to live for all the children of this nation. We can ensure that our people can access healthcare when and where they need it. Children do not have to continue to live in poverty. These are all things that can and should be tackled, but, unfortunately, a Airí, I am beginning to realise it is not that you are unable to tackle these crises, it is that you are unwilling to.

Sentiment score: 0.08