Éamon Ó Cuív: Urges use of surpluses for rural infrastructure
Éamon Ó Cuív spoke about national finances and rural infrastructure, urging that surpluses and windfall revenue be directed to transport and micro‑infrastructure outside major urban centres. He warned that rising wages and inflation make welfare increases and tax credits necessary to prevent households losing ground.
Fiscal figures and surplus context
The speaker recalled past surplus debates and set out current figures, saying the Exchequer balance projected before the budget was 9.5 billion. He noted transfers - 4 billion to the Future Ireland Fund and 2 billion to the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund - which, when added back, produced a real projected surplus of about 15 billion.
Welfare and tax credits
He argued that without increases in welfare and extra tax credits households would effectively go backwards because wages and the cost of living are rising. He pointed out that income tax take is expected to be larger next year and described initial budget sums as largely stand‑still money in real terms.
Infrastructure priorities and rail reopening
The speaker said a commitment has been made to spend some windfall revenue on necessary infrastructure and criticised the National Development Plan for being skewed towards the East Coast. He urged urgent projects outside major urban centres, highlighting a ready‑to‑go proposal to reopen the rail line between Attenray and Clamaris that would connect Casabar, Westport and Balanagh into Galway and improve west‑coast commuter rail. He also said the Limerick‑Galway line is at capacity and needs more carriages and longer platforms, and that planning - not money - has held up the Galway Ring Road.
Rural micro‑infrastructure, water and broadband
He stressed the importance of small rural roads and basic services, citing the Department of Housing's figure that 10% of houses lack access to a public water supply. He criticised the high per‑metre cost to extend schemes, saying it becomes prohibitively expensive, and called for a national programme over ten years to extend public water supply and broadband so "every house should have access to broadband, electricity, water and a decent road."
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Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I haven't been done but with the last two years ago I've had been held with Cain Aash. I had been held on the last five years before the 18th century. I found myself a few Cain Aash that gave me the last two years before the 18th century. There was a lot of time in the world, and I had a lot of time in the world, but I had a lot of time in the world. I had a lot of time in the world, and I had a lot of time in the world. One of the things I remember about the cycle of the Noughties and into the following decade was that I received many, many delegations of the Minister where people were saying, haven't you got X amount of surplus, 3 billion of which I think it was at the time, or 5 billion, and that was having put money away into the pension reserve fund. But when the money ran out, they all then questioned why we spent so much money, and such is human nature. And I can expect, I can understand that people's expectations grow exponentially, not in a straight line, but they grow exponentially as money becomes plentiful. Particularly when people are all the time talking about the surpluses. And in the greater scheme of things, we have good surpluses. We all know from households, though, if you had a two income and you lost a half an income, you suddenly find that what was a good surplus every year was very tight rations. I think it is, though, important to point out that the Exchequer balance projected for next year, before the budget was 9.5 billion. And that included, or didn't include, a transfer to the Future Ireland Fund that you can add back in, because that was taken out of that, of 4 billion and another 2 billion into the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund, which gave you a real surplus projected for the budget of 15 billion. And I think it is right that we recognise that there has been a huge turnaround. Now, the second thing, I think it is also important to realise that if you didn't give increases in welfare, if you didn't give extra tax credits, the reality is, because wages are going up, and because the cost of living is going up, and because of inflation, people would be going backwards. And the actual reality is, the income tax take will be bigger next year, please God. than it was this year. So the first amount of money we get is only a kind of standstill money, in real terms, of real value for money. Now, 11 minutes seems a lot of time, but it is not really that much. So I would like to move on to the windfall. And the commitment has been made that some of that will be spent on necessary infrastructure. Now, so far, the National Development Plan has been skewed towards the East Coast. But there are very urgent infrastructural needs outside of the major urban centres. And they are the parts of the country that we can develop at actually a very cheap cost, where there is space for people, where you are not trying to cram people in to hugely expensive land, and places that are very, very expensive to develop. And therefore, I hope now that some critical projects can be expedited. One of those is that I believe that on the first list of early movers is a project that is ready to go, and that is the reopening of the rail line that exists between Attenray and Clamaris, which will connect Casabar, Westport, etc., Balanagh into Galway, and give you commuter times into Galway for rail in the west. And I put it to the naysayers, that there were naysayers about the Limerick Railway. There is only one complaint we are getting from the railway line from Limerick to Galway at the moment, and that is that you can't get on the trains in Attenray because they are jammers when they get there. And that we need more carriages and longer platforms and so on to service the demand, and even though the service is poor. We obviously need the Ring Road for Galway, but money has not held that up. Planning has held that up. And I hope that that gets dealt with. But the other big issue about rural Ireland, and it doesn't matter whether the rural constituency is in Kildare or in rural Connacht, the reality is that micro-infrastructure is hugely important in rural Ireland. Small roads, the rural roads, a lot of which are not safe and not up to standard, and certainly don't have adequate surfaces. A point I have been banging on about for some time is that 10% of the houses of this country, according to the Department of Housing, according to the Department of Housing, do not have access to a public water supply. And if you apply to extend the scheme, for every metre you go, it is 300. Euro. So it is 3,000 for 10 metres and so on. It gets absolutely ridiculous. It is crazy money. We need a national broadband scheme. For water. That would just say, over 10 years, we are going to extend it. We need a national broadband scheme. Over 10 years, we are going to extend the public water supply to every house in the country. Every house should have access to broadband, electricity, and electricity. For every metre you go, it is 300. For every metre you go, it is 300. So it is 3,000 for 10 metres and so on. It gets absolutely ridiculous. It is crazy money. We need a national broadband scheme for water. That would just say, over 10 years, we are going to extend the public water supply to every house in the country. Every house should have access to broadband, electricity, water and a decent road. It is very simple to say that we are going to have a national security and security that we have to do. When we are in the next generation, we are going to be able to do so. But I am right, when I'm sorry, in this case, I'm sorry about this in the first place that I came to the TGC to the FIIL from the FIIL and the RTE to the FIIL on the state system and the Cadeanus The press rights are huge. We have to pay if. We are 100 million money. We don't have to pay back to our Ramadan for. And I thank you so much for stressing. As somebody who is on the social welfare committee and has spent a lot of years working on social welfare issues, I obviously welcome the improvement in the rates and I'm glad it's the same rate this year that nobody said inflation has gone down, we're not giving the same rise. But anybody who thinks if you're totally dependent on social welfare, lots of people getting social welfare pension have other incomes if they've got contributions paid, but if you're totally dependent on social welfare, social welfare and living off social welfare is difficult and often people have nothing to fall back on. I welcome the increase in the domiciliary carer loans and I don't think we've done enough in the past on this, it's still only 84 euro a week, it's paid by month so it looks a little bit bigger, but it's 84 euro a week and if you have a child where there's a lot of extra costs, it's not a huge sum of money. One thing that I'll be coming back to when we get the social welfare bill, but I would like to mention is means testing and I welcome the changes in the carer's allowance, but you would think that carer's allowance is the only means testing payment, in fact it's the most generously tested means testing payment of those of us who are doing the clinics. But there's very little reform, the department has been two years writing a paper that we still haven't seen. I'll just give a simple example of how crazy the anomalies are. Lots of people who do not have a non-contributory pension were small farmers or small fishermen who were so low on income that they were getting pharmacists or whatever and they weren't eligible to pay a social security contribution or a PSI contribution. And the reality is that if they were in a PAYE employment and they were over 66 they could earn 200 euro a week and there would be no means test. But if they earn it from a small farmer, from fishing or from any self-employment, it's means tested in a vicious way that is totally unfair. They basically take a euro off you for every euro. The same thing happens on disability loans, so we're talking about the carers all the time, but nobody's talking about the cared for, the people with the disability loans. But again, the means test is incredibly severe. I wish to be an answer to go to all theos of this, it's been a very difficult time. I wish to be able to make a good answer and thank you for your support and thank you for your time. Thank you for your support. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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