This Government will be judged when it goes to the polls
BUDGET 2019 was an unambitious and disappointing return to ‘The Late Late Show’ politics – with the Government dispensing €5 to everyone in the audience. Before you rush out to spend the additional €5 a week the Government has generously bestowed on you next year, consider this. Ireland is one of the most expensive countries in Europe in which to live.
According to a recent report from Eurostat, Ireland is the third most expensive country in the EU in which to purchase goods and services.
A few short years after exiting recession, prices in Ireland are 25pc above the EU average.
Given the Eurostat report didn’t include some of the most expensive costs in Ireland, namely rent, childcare and mortgages, the true disparity in the cost of living is even higher.
The Government’s answer to this crisis in the cost of living is to throw €5 at everyone in the country and hope for the best. This is how it plans to “ease the burden on low- and middle-income earners” – by making marginal changes to the USC and income tax thresholds that leave people with an extra couple of quid.
It’s doubtful that anyone, seeing these trifling changes in their pay packets at the end of the month, is going to be particularly grateful.
There is another way to address these issues. Instead of dividing the cake into slices that are so small they are imperceptible to those who consume them, the Government had an opportunity to invest relatively large sums into making discernible improvements to public services.
They could have done something radical on housing or health, ultimately substantially lowering costs for those who are currently struggling to stay afloat. But this would require some foresight, some planning and some bravery – all of which are traits that are sadly missing from our political system.
The budgetary process is supposed to have undergone a reform in recent years to ensure that policy measures are open to scrutiny in advance of being implemented, but in reality very little has changed.
Instead of the theory of a careful analysis of the implication of proposed measures, what we get is a reality of ideas scrawled on the back of an envelope that are somehow given the green light and brought to fruition.
At a time when housing is universally described as a national emergency, what bold new ideas did we see coming from the Government yesterday?
The ‘granny flat grant’ – to subdivide the homes of elderly people into “ground floor independent living and a rental property upstairs” – was a demand of the Independent Alliance, mooted after their other big idea, the ‘granny grant’ for childcare payments to grandparents, was shot down.
Independent Alliance member and Transport Minister Shane Ross was yesterday accused by Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen of “trying to appeal to grannies, like a political Dickie Rock” and there is certainly some truth to that characterisation.
Shamelessly chasing the grey vote, the ‘old reliables’ when it comes to voting, the lack of research that accompanied the notion of a granny flat grant was impressive, even by Irish standards.
While Independent Alliance Minister Finian McGrath last week insisted a grant of €15,000 would cover the renovations, a succession of architects commenting on the measure said the true cost would be a minimum of between €50,000 and €60,000. Yesterday, laughably, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy said the granny flat grant was going to go ahead on a pilot basis – with one house in Clondalkin being renovated at a cost of €50,000 and a further roll-out of the scheme depending on the success of that one project.
Is that the best the Independent Alliance and their colleagues in Government can do when it comes to new ideas to address the housing crisis? The renovation of one house in Clondalkin?
Elsewhere in this supposed housing budget, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe announced that 10,000 new social homes would be delivered next year. What he didn’t say was that 7,900 of these homes have already been announced, meaning the real increase in a time of crisis is only 2,100 homes.
In any event, targets that the Government sets in relation to social housing can never be relied on.
Earlier this year, Mr Murphy set targets for the number of new social homes he expected local authorities to build this year.
Dublin City Council, in whose area the situation is most grave, was set a target of 1,045. In the first six months of this year, it has managed to deliver only 16 of this number. A truly pathetic performance.
Based on this abysmal track record, what confidence can people, living in emergency accommodation, paying extortionate rent or struggling to get on the housing ladder, have that there will be any improvement next year?
While a new affordable housing scheme was announced yesterday, the deputy chief executive of Dublin City Council conceded last week that the local authority would not deliver any affordable houses in Dublin city next year. In fact, he could not even guarantee that any could be delivered by 2020.
Even when the Government does produce a plan, it’s not slow to abandon it when it comes under backbench pressure.
A relatively small increase in the carbon tax, from €20 to €30 per tonne, which translates as 3c on a litre of diesel, was quickly jettisoned yesterday due to a fear of a backlash among motorists and rural voters.
This was done despite Taoiseach Leo Varadkar stating in June that Ireland needed to be “a leader in climate action” and in the context of a report from the UN on Monday warning the world has only 12 years to limit climate change to avoid catastrophe.
Even for purely financial reasons, there is a necessity for Ireland to take action on climate change.
We are currently on course to miss a European target to reduce carbon by 20pc by 2020. Unless things change, our reduction in carbon will be just a paltry 1pc – meaning we are the second worst performing EU country when it comes to tackling climate change.
This failure will be punished and the cost of non-compliance could be up to €500m a year.
Ultimately, this Government will be judged, when it does go to the polls, on its performance – and its promises, to address crises in housing and health, have thus far proved to be empty.
There was nothing in yesterday’s Budget to inspire confidence that things will get any better.
Shamelessly chasing the grey vote, the ‘old reliables’ when it comes to voting, the lack of research that accompanied the granny flat grant was impressive, even by Irish standards