Paul Murphy: Calls Budget a Give-away Bonanza Hurting Ordinary People

I think many people will be scratching their heads today and in the next number of months asking how come we have a supposedly give-away bonanza budget and yet the vast majority of ordinary people are going to be worse off next year. More people will be cold, more people will be hungry, more people will be in energy poverty and don't take it from me take it from Cliff Taylor writing in the Irish Times I quote living standards will fall on average by about 3% this year and 2% next year and the answer is that it's because the crises that we face are systemic crises the crisis of cost of living the housing crisis the climate and biodiversity crises their systemic crisis rooted in profiteering and a capitalist system which is based around organizing our economy to maximize that profiteering the profiteering or the fossil fuel corporations without regard to our planet or our people's needs the profiteering of the energy and food companies in this country the profiteering of the big landlords and the developer their interests and their profits are taking priority and the centerpieces of this government's budget continue in exactly the same vein they don't challenge that profiteering in the slightest instead they continue with it with the electricity credit for example and the temporary business energy support scheme without price controls without price controls without nationalization of the energy sector you are just creating a vast flow of public money through the hands of people into the pockets of energy companies no mechanism whatsoever to stop the electricity companies pocketing the credits by increasing their prices no windfall taxes no you'll wait for the European Commission to do that no new energy infrastructure no investment no guarantee in controlling our supplies and prices into the future the exact same thing with the renters credit a seven days credit for those who get it excluding huge numbers of renters everybody in receipt of hap despite the fact that they're making top ups all students all low-pay workers who don't earn enough to benefit from it and those who aren't even registered the tenancy is not registered with the RTB but again even for those who benefit without proper rent controls that brings rent bring rent down to an affordable level it just ends up in the pockets of the big corporate landlords it just goes into the pile of money the billion euros a year of hap and raz and the other schemes that the big corporate landlords benefit from same applies to the help to buy scheme from its inception in reality it's a help to profit scheme for developers the money just passes through people's hands before ending up in the pockets of the developers there's a lot of talk these days because of what's happening in the UK about trickle-down economics the Irish government operates a kind of perverse version of that a sort of flood up economics where the money is temporarily transferred to ordinary people but with no choice but to hand that money back over to big corporations and with no restrictions whatsoever on their profiteering profiteering this is the significant indirect corporate welfare contained in this budget on top of that is the direct corporate welfare of the temporary business energy support scheme 1.25 billion euros we support supports going to small businesses but it has to be done on the basis of proven need and with conditions in terms of quality employment for the workers instead we have a massive giveaway to almost every business in the state the very biggest corporations in this country are going to be able to benefit from this scheme to the tune of 10,000 euros of public money every month that the scheme operates even more scandalously there appears to be and I open to correction here I'd like to be corrected but there appears to be no mechanisms to stop the data centers benefiting from the scheme so is it accurate that we're going to be given 10,000 euros to each of these data centers a month to subsidize their energy when they're contributing to an absolute crisis of energy in this country if that's the case that is absolutely scandalous of course the SARP continues for the high income people super high income people the knowledge development box continuing the corporate tax haven and you contrast the billions for big businesses with the pennies for pensioners for carers and for unemployed people they needed 27 euros a week just to keep their incomes steady in real terms instead they got 12 euros to add insult to injury they got two euros a week extra for a qualified child two euros to feed and clothe a child in the context of the soaring prices absolutely scandalous and the sting in the tail of these increases is because of the government's failure to raise the income levels for social housing or even better make social housing universal people will be kicked off the housing they'll lose their access they'll lose their access to hap the government won't deal with the issue of social housing it's a huge issue that the government should address then last night the government rams through a vote to put five billion euros in the rainy day fund ministers it's three years since the government declared a national climate emergency it's four years since the then government declared housing to be a national emergency to be a national emergency it is pouring now we're in an emergency situation so instead of putting this money away to bail out banks in the future we should be investing now in public housing in expanded public transport in insulation in retrofitting and in green energy i also want to raise a point about ivf because many couples with the leaks will have had their hopes raised that ivf was going to be offered on the public system in 20 23 but when you look at the small print it seems that that is a cruel inaccurate leak minister mcgrath for example speaks about providing supports for the first time in relation to access to ivf treatment when you read the budget book there is not a cent allocated to provide ivf treatment the irish independent reports that the first phase of public funding for ivf treatment will not begin until late next year on a limited basis at first and details have yet to be worked out on how will be assessed very very cruel if the government doesn't act now to actually have ivf within the public system because on this matter couples can't delay they can't afford to wait for you to get your nice headlines year after year after year but without actually providing the funding and the resources within the public health system to provide ivf for everybody who needs them yesterday minister o'brien also brought a memo to cabinet about the issue of defective apartments and he announced big drum roll a group a group to look into the report of another group we don't need another month multiple months of waiting to have another report about a first report we know what the issue is defective building as a result of finna fall and finnegal inadequate regulation and a regime of self-certification we know what the answer is 100% redress with the state pursuing the builders responsible and so this should have been included in the budget yesterday we provided us in our alternative budget the government should move immediately and not draw this out what's the alternative to all of this if you start from a position not of maximizing profit for corporations but instead from the eco-socialist perspective of people's needs including the need of all of us to live in a habitable planet you end up with a very different approach to the budget and a very different way of organizing our economy and our society you would stop the energy rip-off by re-nationalizing the energy sector by imposing price controls and by running it under democratic public ownership on a not-for-profit basis you would invest public money instead of handing it over to developers and corporate landlords invest public money to build quality public housing you would buy up the hop and the ras landlords you would buy their properties and you would nationalize the big corporate landlords you would take everybody in this country it can be done everybody in this country out of poverty instead of cutting the budget for climate day for which is what's been done in this budget you would have massive public investment public investment in renewable energy including public ownership you would have public investment in free green frequent public transport public investment in retrofitting and in installation you would cause inflation in the simplest way possible by removing things from the market from decommodifying things by providing vital public services as that universal basic public services free childcare free GP care genuinely free education at all levels there's the money to do it in our alternative budget we set with just four measures employers PRSI another rate of tax rose those over 100 000 wealth tax and increasing an increase in corporation tax you can raise 11 billion and the corporation tax comes on top of that you refuse to do it the third richest country in the world with social crises all over the place because you run society and the economy in the interest of the corporate landlords in the interest of the energy companies in the interest of the developers and that's why we need government change but more than that we need system change we need to organize society on an eco-socialist basis on the interest of people not profit