Brian Stanley: Budget 'Squeezes' Middle-Income Households

So Minister, the budget is about choices and you could have helped to squeeze middle, you could have helped the working poor, but what did the government do? In the middle of a costly living crisis, rents will go up from March, local property taxes have just gone up, electricity is going up, at the same time as groceries and other items are going up in price, but you could have addressed, there are some of them that you could have addressed, but what did the government do? He loaded more economic hardship on middle-income householders and workers in particular. More tax, more LTPT, more carbon tax and even higher rents. Workers and median income will be worse off next year, I think everybody has agreed on that today, and election promise to look after the carers allowance to abolish the means test, that has been forgotten. There should have been supports, targeted supports in terms of energy credits for low and middle income households. USC could have been reduced or cancelled for those on below £40,000, along with adjusted tax plans for workers to take account of inflation, that should have happened, and instead workers on medium income would pay more tax and face higher prices. Child benefit needed to be increased, at least to keep in pace with inflation. We know everything can't be done, but it should have been kept in pace with inflation. And in relation to VAT, if the government, and I know a lot of small restaurants and cafes are struggling, I know that, but if the government wanted to assist those small cafes and restaurants, they could have cut the VAT rate for them on the first £2 or £3 million of turnover. Instead, you give a tax cut from 13.5% to 9% across the board, at a cost of almost £700 million. And the real beneficiaries there would be the large hotel groups and the fast food chains, such as Costa and McDonald's and Burger King, etc. In the area of health, access to health, I know health is expensive, but let's get it right in terms of primary care. Access to primary care is really a priority. And a pressing issue is the need for the income threshold for medical cards. That stands out as scandalous, just €184 for a single person, and for a couple with two children. Now think about this. A couple with two children, €342, when you go over that you lose your medical card. And these people have no basic health cover, they can't afford private health insurance. So that should have been rectified. A portion of the large capital budget needs to be ring-fenced for new primary care centres. And I would highlight in particular, Minister, Portlaoise Town, a population of over 30,000, one of the few in the country that doesn't have a primary care centre. New health centres are also required in Mount Tratton and Ratownie. In the area of housing, yes, there was a sizeable budget allocated, and I acknowledge that. But what's been achieved with this is in question. Over £2 billion of this will be spent on rent subsidies to private landlords. And this is year-on-year. This isn't a one-year payment. This is every year this is going. And this provides no tangible assets at the end of it for the State. Instead resources need to be used to construct cost rental and affordable homes to buy. The imposition of rent caps is urgently required. I highlighted here recently that in the case of Leish, rents were took over 10% in one year alone. Over 10%, that's according to the RTB. So the runaway rents need to be capped to stop that from happening. In the area of education, yes, there was a welcome increase in the capitation grant, particularly for primary schools. I acknowledge that. I would like to have seen it going further, but it's a start with 50 euros. There's a real pressure on the additional accommodation for special school classes. And I would highlight here in particular the Sapling School in Great Cullen, which is half built and is standing there for a year and a half, and it needs some money. Your department has funded some of it already through the justice scheme, passports for investment. But it stands still there now for over a year. It needs capital funding to complete it. I would also highlight to you the need for funding for classrooms, for classroom extension to St Francis School in Portlaoise. So overall, instead of targeting money to ease the burden on the working poor and the squeeze middle and to improve public services, the Budget will have the effect of transferring a huge amount of wealth, a huge amount of private tax, sorry, a public taxpayer's money to big business and to wealthy and private individuals. That's not what's needed. We need a social approach, fairness for workers and families, particularly the squeeze middle. Thank you.