Budget 2017: Fianna Fáil influence noticeable, says McGrath

Budget 2017 is a better budget because of the input of Fianna Fáil, the party's finance spokesman has told the Dáil.

Michael McGrath said “the voice of the ordinary people of Ireland has brought about a marked change in budgetary policy”, because of the way they voted in the general election.

He said the confidence and supply agreement between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil is “the first time in the history of the State that such a government arrangement was entered into”.

He said that “in today’s budget the split between expenditure on services and investing in people on the one hand and taxation measures on the other was three to one.

“By any measure this is a significant achievement and is a major departure from last Fine Gael-Labour budget,” Mr McGrath said.

He said that “from the outside we influenced it as best we could for a decent and fair budget”. It was a fairer budget and Fianna Fáil made no apology for that.

Brexit dangers

Taking up a remark by Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe about the centre in politics, he made a swipe at other Opposition parties.

“For too many in this House, accepting responsibility is always the job of somebody else. The bigger picture is that the centre ground of politics is under attack, not just in Ireland but throughout Europe,” he said.

He said that when he looked at the alternative, he had come to the conclusions that “the centre must hold”.

The Fianna Fáil spokesman warned of the dangers of Brexit which was “set to become the dominant political and economic issue facing the island of Ireland at least for the next few years”.

He said clear leadership was needed to navigate the enormous challenges Brexit posed and he criticised as "absolutely pathetic" the €3 million extra to assist agencies such as Enterprise Ireland and the IDA in their efforts to help exporters and encourage investment from the UK.

Mr McGrath also repeated his party’s call for a dedicated minister to deal with Brexit.

Tax rebate

The Cork South-Central TD criticised the Government’s tax rebate for first-time house buyers and said it risked making the position worse.

He questioned whether the Government had actually done a full impact assessment of the proposal and said Fianna Fáil’s over-riding concern was that “this intervention will push up the price of new homes”.

Fianna Fáil's public expenditure and reform spokesman Dara Calleary said there were no new home help hours and no new homecare packages in the budget. He also said hospital waiting lists continued to rise despite a €500 million investment in health. He said there had to be early and measurable action on dealing with waiting lists.

He welcomed the reduction in prescription charges for those over 70 from €25 to €20 a month but said there was a case to be made for those who are disabled to get a similar reduction.

Mr Calleary also warned that from 2017 under EU rules, there could be no revised estimates with the provision of an extra €500 million. “If the trends of previous years continue in 2017, there is no plan B,” he said.