The Government and all of my colleagues on this side of the House absolutely understand the consequences of the uncertainty of the world that we are now in and what that means for households and businesses. We see a world that has become more dangerous, more volatile and full of uncertainty. We on this side of the House are absolutely aware of the concern and anxiety that is causing for many in our country, whether that be small businesses trying to keep jobs or householders worried about whether they will be able to pay their bills and keep their homes in the future. I see that in the eyes of my constituents. All of us see that in the engagements that we have with those we serve across the length and breadth of our country. This, of course, is most manifest in the cost of living and the impact that increased bills is having on very many at the moment. In terms of what the Government is currently doing in relation to this, we have to look at what we can do to prevent the impact of the cost of living on households and businesses and at the support we can make available in the future. What we are already doing, for example, includes the measures that we have put in place in relation to the retrofitting of homes. A sum of €230 million was invested in this scheme last year, helping over 7,000 homes. In the past two years we have seen 129,000 energy upgrades to homes across our country. This year's budget alone has €280 million set aside for the warmer homes scheme, which is an eleven-fold increase in funding in comparison with where we were a number of years ago. In addition to what we can do to prevent and mitigate these kinds of cost increases, which will be difficult, we also want to look at the regulatory model that we have here in Ireland. That is why the Government has laid out its commitment to assessing the role of the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, within our country in terms of the role of affordability and competitiveness within its mandate. As we face into these kinds of challenges, they will be made no easier and no less difficult for so many by adding an air of dishonesty or cynicism regarding what any Government or politician can do. It is precisely because we are in difficult and volatile times that the Government needs to do two things. First, we must recognise what that means for those we are privileged to serve, and we do. Second, the Government must look at what it can do in a way that can help, which is why the Minister, Deputy Chambers was right. The Minister and I, and the Government, are very clear on what we can do and what we want to do in this regard. I cannot stand here in front of the House today and say that the level of payments that we have made available over the last number of years can become the norm. Those payments were made available at a time in which inflation was at 5%, 10% and 15%. They were made available across a world that is very different from today. That level of payment is something that, if we begin to normalise it and say it will be available year after year, of itself runs the risk of creating difficulties for our country and economy in the years ahead. However, as the Minister, Deputy Chambers said only today, as we approach the budget and respond to the challenges that are there, we will look at what measures we can put in place that will be targeted and can offer support to those who need it the most. We want to be clear in recognising the great challenge and worry that exists within our country at the moment but, equally, we want to be honest and say that we cannot and will not do anything that adds to the risks that we may face but at the same time, we want to identify how we can and will help.
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It is interesting Deputy Cullinane should bring up the election because he is representing the most unsuccessful opposition party in Europe at present. It is the only opposition party that managed to go into an election at a time prices were high and lose votes.
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It lost votes. The reason it lost votes is because the people of Ireland knew the economic policies it was bringing forward were not credible.
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If you promise everything, you are for nothing. You were seen through at that time.
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I have noticed the trend that Sinn Féin has now, whereby it grows unhappy when I interrupt its heckling. This will not deter me-----
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-----and it will not deter the Government from doing two things-----
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-----first, from calling out the fact that Sinn Féin's economic policies and solutions were seen through.
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Where would we be now if we had followed its policies and been entering into a scenario with a Government borrowing while jobs were at risk.
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That is what Sinn Féin offered. It was seen through.
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As I said, despite the best efforts of the Sinn Féin Opposition-----
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-----the Government will be honest in how we can help.
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What we will not do is do so-----
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-----at the expense of the honesty that is needed at a time when the country and Europe are facing new challenges and new risks.
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I thank Deputy Sherlock for raising an issue with which I am familiar. In particular I recognise the work that GP Care For All has done, and the person at the heart of it, Amanda Farrelly. I was hoping to meet them myself tomorrow but another Government commitment has got in the way. I am well aware of the importance of the work they do and the value of the service. While I very much welcome and acknowledge Deputy Sherlock's right to raise this here, making points such as that the Department of Finance is at the heart of this mess does a disservice to the complexity of the issue. I hope a bipartisan approach to try to correct it can play a role. I know Deputy Sherlock is aware the HSE wants to recruit GPs who can work directly for the public service. I know she is aware of changes that have already been made to tax legislation to try to deal with this issue. Unfortunately, changes that were made by my predecessor, Deputy Chambers, to deal with an issue that had been raised have not made the progress we had hoped. I hope and know Deputy Sherlock is aware of how much work has gone on in the Department of Health and the Ministry of Finance to try to identify options for dealing with this issue, which so far have not yet had the success we would want. The very heart of this issue, as Deputy Sherlock well knows, is the relationship that is in place from a contractual perspective between GPs and the HSE, which goes back to legislation from 1970, and the tax consequences of this which mean that, as a matter of law, income under a GMS contract belongs to the GP who entered into the contract with the HSE. This assessment was confirmed by the Tax Appeals Commission's determination in January 2022. This is the background to the issue. There are officials and politicians of goodwill who have worked to try to find a way of resolving this. I, as the Minister for Finance, in conjunction with my colleague the Minister for Health will continue to do what we can to try to make progress on this issue. If goodwill alone could have solved this issue it would have happened and Deputy Sherlock knows this is the case. She knows work has happened on it. I and the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, will prioritise this issue. We will look at the options that are there. Certainly from a tax perspective I will engage on this issue and see whether steps can be put in place. I look at the progress we have made in opening a primary care centre in Summerhill, what it means for those on Sean O'Casey Avenue and in the surrounding communities and the difference it is making from a health perspective. I look at the great work these GPs are doing and Deputy Sherlock is raising this issue on their behalf. I know the impact and the role they play in supporting the health of their patients.
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We will do our very best on this issue and I thank Deputy Sherlock for raising it.
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Deputy Sherlock knows we are treating this issue with urgency. She knows that. She knows the Minister is and she has acknowledged that to me. She knows we are working on it. The Deputy does the issue a disservice by suggesting otherwise. I ask her to please acknowledge, as I have done, that if this was an issue that was simple and that could easily be dealt with, we would already have done so. We have acknowledged that this is a complex issue. Unfortunately, that complexity means that a group of deeply committed healthcare professionals, who have decided to provide services in communities that the Deputy and I are lucky enough to represent, are now facing the vista of them not being able to continue that work, and what is suffering or could suffer from that is the health of those we are doing our best to stand by. What I have done is outline the work that has already happened with regard to this, which I know the Deputy is aware of. We have put in place different options to try to resolve the issue but I know they are not leading to the outcome that I want. If I was in a position to outline a detailed solution to this today, that detailed solution would now be implemented, and what we will do is continue to work on this issue and do our best to find a solution to it.
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I thank the Deputy. As he began his contribution, I will begin mine by acknowledging the huge anxiety and distress that families can face when young girls and boys with additional needs need additional support and have various conditions that we want to make a difference to. We see what that does to them for their start in life, and what it does to their families, their mams and dads, who are trying to get the support they want to give to their son and daughter when they know they need it. I also recognise, as the Deputy has done, those voluntary organisations and service providers outside of the State that play a very valuable role in supporting the State and those families who need the help we all want to see them get. I also appreciate the Deputy's honesty in acknowledging that despite the importance of this issue - and it is one we are doing our best to make a difference to - it is going to take time when time is short for those young girls and boys who need the help we want to give them. To directly answer the Deputy's question around what the Government is doing on this, we are doing three particular things. First, at a political level, it is the reason the Taoiseach is chairing a Cabinet subcommittee on the issue of disability. All of us meet those families, children and their parents, and we see at first hand what that means to their journey in life. We want to better co-ordinate the resources that the State is making available, and through our budgets build on the progress we have made recently from a funding and recruitment perspective. The Taoiseach has decided to chair a Cabinet group to look at how we can do that. Second, we are looking at what we can do from a supply perspective to ensure that we have those in our universities and places of higher learning who, in turn, can become the very therapists that we need. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and in fact all of the Ministers here, are working on this issue. What we are seeing in so many parts of the world is a demand for these therapists and healthcare professionals, and it is why the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, the now Tánaiste and my colleagues here have looked at what we can do in our universities to ensure the supply of these professionals is progressing. That is under way. Finally, and most importantly from a recruitment perspective, we are making efforts in this area. We know we need more therapists and healthcare professionals but we have seen, for example, 272 more healthcare professionals in this area now, and an overall increase in the numbers working in that broad area. It is the reason we are putting more therapists into our schools, and it is the reason we are looking at what measures we can put in our schools early in the educational journey to make sure this support is provided at a time it is most urgently needed.
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I thank the Deputy again for raising the issue. I can make the case to him that the vacancy rate within these healthcare professions has decreased. It has decreased from 29% in 2023 to 21% in 2024, and that is an improvement, but we have so much further to go because we know the level of human need that is there. We know we need to be helping families and the children they love so much in a better way than is happening at the moment. I can make the case for how much more money we are spending. I can make the case that my colleagues are giving this all the priority they can. I could point to how many more healthcare professionals we have there. We need to continue with this and we will. Going to the further important point the Deputy made, he made the point regarding whether we can put in place staff to assist these therapists and their healthcare professionals in doing their work. That is being done at the moment. We have a budget of €500,000 in place to allow the hiring of a further 20 health and social care professional assistants or therapy assistants to help with this work being done. I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue today.
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The veil has slipped for a second time when it comes to Aontú on jobs within our economy. It is not so long ago I was in this Chamber when Deputy Tóibín referred to people who were working for large employers as transitional jobs. Here today, the Deputy now referred to corporate tax profitability receipts as "bargain basement".
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I invite Deputy Tóibín to walk into the large employers for which many of his constituents work and tell them that the efforts that they are putting in are bargain basement and that the taxes their work is creating are bargain basement. I invite the Deputy to do a tour of the large employers across our country that have played such a critical role in paying the tax at a time we need it, and in the modernisation and creation of jobs within Ireland, and tell them that this is bargain basement. That is the Aontú agenda.
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That is the Aontú agenda. That is your agenda, Deputy Tóibín. I hear it again and again. As the veil slips, it is also characterised by typical misinformation from the Deputy. I heard the Minister, Deputy Chambers, on "Morning Ireland" this morning. I heard him outline a number of different things, including the reality that we have to yet consider what the United States may do, and, in doing so, it is essential we make the case for trade that is mutually beneficial and that creates jobs and investment in America. The Minister also outlined the work the Government is doing, that he is central to, in understanding what the economic impact of the environment we are moving into could be, which he and I will jointly conclude with the stability programme update, the economic forecast that will be presented to the Government and the Oireachtas in a few weeks' time. He also made the point. that I will repeat here today, that we are doing that in an environment in which there have never been more people at work in Ireland than there are today. There are 2.8 million people at work. I did not hear the Deputy refer to the unemployment figures that came out earlier in the week which indicated that the unemployment rate is nearly at its lowest ever in the history of Ireland or the fact that we have gone by a position of full employment. We are also in a position that we are running budget surpluses, the very budget surpluses the Deputy has always said, like his former colleagues in Sinn Féin, we should be spending day after day. The Deputy concluded amidst his diatribe with one question to me regarding what kind of engagement I am having. I am engaging directly with the OECD, which is the key organisation from a tax perspective in this regard. I met its representatives last week regarding this. I have met them on two occasions in recent weeks. This Government, most notably through the engagement we will have with President Trump next week, will look at all ways and at all layers in which we can engage in what is indeed a great challenge to our country.
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Leave the tribalism aside. That is a bit rich coming from the Deputy in this regard. He asked me the question regarding what engagement the Government, the Tánaiste has had-----
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-----with the Secretary of State of the United States of America during the week and the fact the Taoiseach will meet President Trump next week. I have engaged with the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, through a G7 meeting that happened last week. I have met twice with the organisation that is, on a global level, involved in dealing with this issue. That is the engagement we have had. I invite the Deputy to go back. I am informed that international employers in 16 different companies in County Meath employ 3,047 people in the Deputy's constituency and county. Again, I extend the invitation to the Deputy. Go into those companies-----
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Go into those companies and tell them-----
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-----that the tax receipts they are involved in generating are bargain basement and-----
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-----perhaps he might tell them again that their jobs are transitional.
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