Taoiseach defends 'budget for hope'
The Dáil Chaney/collins "a Document €90bn Mr In The The Budget After Speaking Said Was Photo:gareth Tuesday's Announcement, Of Intent" By Martin Government Statement New
A national recovery will be delivered by this week's budget, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has insisted — but the Opposition accused him of offering people "crumbs from the table".
Speaking in the Dáil after Tuesday's €90bn budget announcement, Mr Martin said the document was "a statement of intent" by the new Government.
"It is a decisive move to deliver national recovery — and it is an equally decisive statement of support for strong, effective public services which serve all of the people," he said.
"It will significantly improve key health services. It will launch a dramatic new era of social and affordable housing.
"It will step-change education for our most vulnerable students. It will empower people with disabilities, with new and too-long-denied opportunities.
"It will enable action to meet new, more urgent targets for tackling climate change and protecting our biodiversity.
"It will support businesses and communities as we confront the harsh reality of the historically damaging decision of our neighbour to leave the European Union."
Mr Martin said that while the "scale of disruption from Covid cannot be overstated", his Government was "acting decisively" to head off the threat of both the virus and a hard Brexit.
His Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, meanwhile, told the Dáil that the pandemic had highlighted weaknesses in Irish society, but said the budget aimed to address those.
"Budget 2021 is an unprecedented budget for unprecedented times," he said.
"In scale, it involves almost €90bn of public spending and investment. Its purpose is to protect both the lives and livelihoods of everyone in the State. It is a budget for hope, and gives us confidence that 2021 can be better."
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, however, said that the budget offered little, other than slogans.
"The reality is that while the Government talks up big figures, many will see only crumbs from the table," she said.
"If the minister really wanted to provide hope and confidence, he would have done things very differently. Sinn Féin in Government would have done things differently.
"We would have given certainty to workers, families, and small businesses so they can get through this crisis, and we would have also planned to rebuild in a better, fairer, and stronger way.
"This should have been a budget that laid the foundations of a stronger, fairer, and better Ireland.
"It should have been a budget to provide relief for workers and families, resilience for our public services, and the start of a recovery for our economy and a plan to rebuild.
"Instead, what has been delivered is a stop-gap budget, one that will see us standing still instead of moving forward."
Labour leader Alan Kelly said that the budget took no radical steps, and highlighted the country's "two-tier economy".
"There is one economy for the well paid, the comfortable, and the well-connected — and another for low-paid workers, struggling families, young families, and stressed-out citizens," he said.
"One economy has been relatively well-insulated from the effects of the pandemic, while the other has not.
"Is it any wonder that we have a two-tier health system, when it sits on top of a two-tier economy?
"It does not take a genius to work out which tier of the health service lower-paid workers and low-income families are most likely to have to use."