'Well wrapped ' Budget put big issues on 'back burner' - claims Laois representative
The Government failed to address the issues affecting workers and families in a Budget compared by Laois TD Brian Stanley to a 'well wrapped parcel' the just put the big issues on 'the back burner.
The Sinn Féin poll topper bemoaned the contents of Budget 2023 on a number of fronts.
“Despite having the funding, the budget done little on housing, nothing on health services and despite all the talk from the Green Party, failed to address the Climate and biodiversity crisis," he said.
He highlighted housing.
"The Government’s approach to housing was to give tax breaks to landlords, failure to implement rent controls, and no increase funding for affordable to purchase and social housing. While they done a U-turn on their previous blocking of the Sinn Féin proposal on mortgage interest relief, the scheme that they proposed to implement will exclude many middle-aged and older householders," he said.
Dep Stanley said Sinn Féin’s proposal for housing would have included an additional €1.7 billion for an extra 7,300 homes.
"We proposed a full month rent rebate for renters and a 3 year emergency rent freeze. Hard pressed mortgage holders would have been able to claim up to €1,500 Mortgage Interest Relief in a full year," he said.
He also gave a bad diagnosis on health spending.
“Despite the massive crisis in health waiting lists and mental health services, no funding was provided for the promised 1,500 beds. No funding was provided for extra capacity in acute hospitals and there was no expansion of the medical card scheme," he said.
He claimed his party proposed an additional €106 million to provide urgently needed extra beds in mental health services and an extra €1.3 billion to expand capacity in acute and general hospitals.
"We also proposed a costed measure of bringing 400,000 workers and family members into the medical card scheme,’’ he said.
The Portlaoise-based representative was also displeased by climate action measures.
“While the Government have talked big on retrofitting, they have provided just €40 million extra for home energy retrofits and upgrades. They failed to bring in new measures for those transitioning from solid fuel but did manage to increase the price of home heating oil," he said.
He claimed Sinn Féin would have provided for an additional €185 million in supports for householders.
"This included a target scheme of €100 million to assist workers and families on lower incomes to do deep retrofits. There was also an additional €25 million to support a tiered approach based on income, an additional €60 million for those transitioning from solid fuel plus an extra €35 million for solar panels. To deal with the biodiversity crisis we included a costed measure of €75 million for a special biodiversity and nature restoration fund," he said.
His conclusion was that the Government has made the budget look good.
“The big issues have again been put on the back burner and instead what we got from Government is a well-wrapped parcel without substance,’’ he said.
The Budget was announced in the Dáil by Ministers Michael McGrath and Paschal Donohoe.