Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 12 Dec 2023

Vol. 1047 No. 4

Appropriation Bill 2023: Second Stage

Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform (Deputy Paschal Donohoe)

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I am pleased to introduce this Bill to the House. It is a critical piece of annual financial legislation that needs to be enacted before the end of the year. The Bill has two primary functions. The first is to provide the legal authorisation for all of the expenditure that has occurred in 2023 on the basis of the Estimates voted on by the Dáil over the course of the year. These are set out in section 1 and Schedule 1. They refer to the Revised Estimates, further Revised Estimates and Supplementary Estimates agreed by the Dáil, which in aggregate amount to €79.9 billion. Last year, in the Appropriation Act 2022, the comparable amount was €75.1 billion. This represents an increase of close to €4.8 billion or 6.4%, and in gross terms, taking into account expenditure on the Social Insurance Fund and the National Training Fund, the total gross voted expenditure for the year was €95.9 billion. This reflects Government's planned and balanced approach to budgetary policy. It looks to provide for the continued improvement of public services, living standards and investment in our schools, hospitals, trains and roads.

The Government has invested in childcare and healthcare.

It has supported our growing population and living standards, particularly at a time of high inflation. It also represents the Government's continued commitment to responding comprehensively to challenges when they arise, such as through the cost-of-living package, supports for people fleeing the war in Ukraine and the legacy impact of the pandemic on our front-line services. Some of these responses were provided through the Supplementary Estimates 2023, which also reflect the Appropriation Bill 2023. The amounts outlined in Schedule 1 of the Bill include the amounts allocated in the Revised Estimates volume for the public service and the significant amount of additional resources made available in 2023 through Supplementary Estimates. While inflation has moderated through the year, it still remains at high levels. The Government and I know that even as inflation falls and energy bills decrease, many are still concerned about rising costs, particularly the challenges of heating and lighting their homes this winter. The Government responded to these pressures through a series of cost-of-living supports totalling €17.5 billion since the start of 2022. Reflected in this are the costs of measures introduced in the spring package and later in the year as part of the winter cost-of-living package announced in budget 2024. The cost-of-living package will provide approximately €2.3 billion in progressive supports for households and businesses, including three €150 energy credits for households and additional social welfare payments. These supports will benefit all homes but will support those on lower incomes the most.

The second critical function of the Appropriation Bill 2023 is to provide a legal basis for expenditure to continue into next year in the period before the Dáil votes on the 2024 Estimates. As set out in the Central Fund (Permanent Provisions) Act 1965, the authority for spending in 2023 prior to the agreement of the 2024 Estimates by the Dáil is based on the amounts enacted in the Appropriation Bill 2023. For this reason, it is essential that the Bill is enacted before the end of this year. Should the Bill not be enacted, there will be no authority to spend any voted moneys in 2024 from the start of January until the approval of the 2024 Estimates.

Dealing with the matter of capital carryover, to account for the complexity faced by Government Departments in planning for major capital projects, the rolling, multi-annual capital envelopes introduced in 2004 allow for the carryover of up to 10% of unspent voted capital expenditure from the current year into the next. This provides for a degree of flexibility needed for the year-on-year planning of how we spend on capital projects. Schedule 2 of the Bill sets out the proposed capital expenditure amounts, which are carried over to 2024 by vote, in aggregate. The capital carryover from 2023 to 2024 will be approximately €530 million, which is approximately 4.2% of the overall gross voted capital allocation of €12.5 billion. The Revised Estimate volume of 2024, due to be published by my Department this week, will include details of the amounts to be deferred, by subhead, for votes, which are availing of the capital carryover function for next year. This carryover will bring the overall amount available to Departments for gross voted capital spending next year to over €13 billion. This will continue the increased investment in capital projects and programmes seen in recent years under the national development plan to provide more schools, homes, beds in hospitals and other pieces of vital infrastructure. The level of expenditure will be pivotal in building on the progress already made in supporting balanced regional development and, most importantly, delivering the necessary infrastructure to support our future climate change obligations.

As in previous years, the Appropriation Bill 2023 also contains a provision for repayable advances from the Central Fund to the Paymaster General's supply account to meet certain Exchequer liabilities due for payment over the first week of January. The provision for these advances is critical as the banking system will be closed on Monday, 1 January. This means it is necessary for funding to be in place in departmental bank accounts before the end of the year in order to meet these liabilities on a timely basis. This Bill also contains a provision to pre-fund certain payments under the Social Welfare Acts between 1 and 6 January 2024, which are made on an agency basis by An Post. The advances provision in the Bill ensures these payments can be transferred from the Department of Social Protection to the network of An Post offices throughout January. Section 3 of the Bill provides for up to €440 million to be advanced from the Central Fund to meet these requirements, which will be repaid to the Central Fund in January next year.

To conclude, this annual Bill is an essential element of the financial housekeeping undertaken by the Dáil each year. The passage of this Bill will authorise into law all of the expenditure that has taken place in the year on the basis of the Estimates voted on by the Dáil over the course of the year and, importantly, it will also provide authority for voted expenditure to continue in the period between the beginning of January and when the Dáil approves the 2024 Estimates. It will ensure continued funding for the delivery of public services including our health services and the payment of social protection schemes. It reflects a planned approach to public spending that aims to build and deliver our economic, social and climate ambitions. I therefore commend the Bill to the House.

Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh

As the Minister said, the purpose of the Appropriation Bill 2023 is to give statutory authority to the amounts voted on by the Dáil during the year from the original Estimates, further Revised Estimates and Supplementary Estimates. The Bill used to be just waved through the Dáil without any debate. It is important that this is no longer the case. This House needs greater scrutiny of the budget, not least because of the new budget gimmicks, as they were described by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, in which the Government uses new and creative categories of expenditure to obscure and confuse the budget process. The self-imposed spending rule was not a good idea in the first place and became meaningless in the face of sustained inflation. Transparency is paramount. One bad decision should not lead to another. We have seen the ever-expanding use of Supplementary Estimates.

The International Monetary Fund provides guidelines for public expenditure management, with which I am sure the Minister is familiar. The guidelines state that "...excessive use of supplementary estimates cause difficulties, and usually indicates a lack of budget discipline." It goes on to state that "The basic principle ... is that supplementaries should not be necessary, as long as the budget is well prepared..." The handling of the health budget for next year completely contradicts the IMF guidelines on Supplementary Estimates. In earlier contributions in the Dáil, we heard about the number of people waiting on trolleys, people who cannot get beds and the recruitment embargo and its impact. There was an announcement of an additional €92 million but even with that, we are currently in serious bother.

Is the Valproate inquiry included in that amount? It has been promised and awaited for for a long time. I know a chair is being sought at the moment. I urge that the inquiry be set up as quickly as possible. The families impacted by Valproate have waited for years to get the truth behind why Epilim was prescribed to pregnant women and the impact it had on their children.

We have also seen the substantial use of capital carryover. The Bill before us deals directly with carryover facilities. The use of the facility has ballooned since 2020. This was initially understandable and justified as it was largely a result of Covid. However, since then, the Government has struggled to get a handle on capital expenditure. In recent years, as the amount of money provided for capital expenditure has been rising, so too has the level of capital carryover. Capital carryover almost reached €800 million in 2020.

It hit €820 million in 2021, accounting for 7.8% of the total capital budget. Last year it was €687 million, and this year €532 million in capital expenditure will be carried over into next year. It could be said there are slight improvements there, but this is still far too high, in particular when we consider the progress is in part due to the Government agreeing for the State to absorb a large percentage of construction cost inflation from ongoing projects.

I am extremely concerned about the delivery of capital projects. We get contradictory messages from Government. On the one hand it blames the cost of inflation for its inability to deliver projects. On the other hand we see the Departments struggle to spend their capital allocations. We see the Department of Education far overspending its capital budget due to construction costs. This is what you would expect to see as a result of two years of high inflation.

We have also seen this in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. I take a moment to reference the report recently done by the Irish Cancer Society about people with severe health conditions, even terminal diagnoses, who are returning to cold homes they are unable to afford to heat. I urge the Minister to work with the Minister, Deputy Ryan, to provide the capital flexibility for SEAI to provide basic insulation for people who are very ill. I am working with people in County Mayo who are extremely ill. We have to do something about the situation with SEAI, even if that means giving it direct funding. What we are being told at the moment is there is a 26-month waiting list for people who are seriously ill. It is far too long. We need a system that can respond and fast-track certain cases when we are talking about people who are extremely ill. Will the Minister look at that? It is a good scheme in terms of what can be done with it, but it is no use asking someone who is really ill to wait 26 months.

I return to the issue of capital investment. During times of inflation, we would expect to see capital budgets being maximised. Inflation should mean more money is needed to deliver the same number of projects. However, the Government has not in any meaningful way revised the NDP ceilings set out in 2021. This means the same level of ambition outlined in the 2021 NDP cannot be achieved. It is as simple as that. Unless the capital budget is increased to reflect increased costs resulting from inflation, we are left with two options. We either cancel projects or make savings by slowing the pace of projects. We have severe infrastructure deficits, and I know from my constituency of Mayo the desperate need for health projects, for water, road, rail and grid infrastructure, and the list goes on. I sincerely welcome that the track is finally being cleared between Athenry and Claremorris for the western rail corridor. The western rail corridor has become a byword for regional development in the west. For too long, certain regions of rural Ireland have been falling further behind. I note there was a meeting the other day between the North and Western Regional Assembly and the Taoiseach, where the removal of matching funding requirements for the URDF and ERDF was pointed out to him. That should be considered, but so also should there be discussion of the necessity of the key projects of the N17, and the Claremorris to Collooney western rail corridor.

The EU Regional Competitiveness Index shows the scale of the infrastructure deficit in the west. Out of 234 regions across the EU, the west of Ireland ranks 218th for infrastructure. That places the region in the bottom 7%, alongside some of the poorest regions in the EU. This is of huge frustration to people across the west, who have had to fight tooth and nail for the small stretch of rail line, which is the western rail corridor, and for other vital infrastructure that people need to capitalise on the expertise and the Atlantic economic corridor. For it to mean something, we need the infrastructure to go with it. We need a commitment from Government on the extension from Claremorris to Collooney. This would connect the west of Ireland. It would connect Sligo to Galway, and Mayo to Sligo. People in Mayo need confirmation on the N17 and they need to know when that will progress. They also need to know about Mayo University Hospital. It is bursting at the seams, and working to 125% capacity. These are all capital projects that have to be delivered, and it is having a detrimental effect on the current quality of life of people in the west and in rural Ireland, and will have into the future, unless these projects are delivered. There is no point announcing things, and them disappearing for a number of years until we come to elections and they are announced and regurgitated again. People demand far more than that and people need more than that.

We have already lost too much time. The 2024 budget announcement was the moment to get back on track. Cabinet Ministers were warned of a €14 billion deficit in September. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has warned there will a €19 billion black hole in our capital budget by 2030. IFAC has said that an extra €2.7 billion will be needed each year between 2024 and 2030. That is what is needed for delivery of the same projects outlined in the national development plan. I believe the final version of the independent evaluation of the NDP conducted by the ESRI is on the Minister's desk. He said two weeks ago he was seeking to agree a publication date with the ESRI. I ask him again today when that will be reviewed. We need to look at these projects and where we are with the NDP, and we need to see how we are going to deliver what is needed under the NDP in a timely way.

Deputy Ged Nash

I welcome the Minister. While this Bill is something of a housekeeping exercise, it is nonetheless important that we are having some class of parliamentary debate on it. The Minister will recall it was not that long ago when we did not have debates of this nature on the annual Appropriation Bill. It simply went through on the nod, sadly, a little like our Supplementary Estimates this year. I will return to that matter shortly. As the Minister says, this Bill provides the legal authority for all 2023 expenditure and the Revised Estimates and Supplementary Estimates of this year. As the Minister said in his contribution, it allows for spending to take place on important public services in 2023 and before the 2024 Estimates are approved. That is important. It would be good, even though it is not necessarily the subject of this debate, to have copies in sight of the Revised Estimates at this point. That has not happened. I understand they will be made available this week. The Taoiseach made reference in the Chamber earlier to the fact that additional resources would be made available to the health service, especially for new medicines. That is to be welcomed.

As the Minister knows well, it is constitutionally one of the key jobs of the Dáil to approve proposed government expenditure. It is not a job, quite frankly, that the Dáil does especially well, not because it does not want to but because it is simply not enabled to because of the reality of how politics and government are practised in this country. The Dáil is a rubber-stamping chamber for decisions already made by the Executive in the full knowledge that funding allocations will always be approved as presented and with no amendment. The Minister will be familiar with the 2018 OECD report, which ranked Ireland 61st out of 70 countries when it comes to parliamentary engagement in the budgetary process. In that review, the think tank expressed a view that there is almost no revision of budget proposals by the Legislature and said it would be difficult to view this reality as "beneficial for fiscal democracy". I agree. It is a fact that one of the most important things we do every year as TDs is vote on government spending. The creation and distribution of resources is fundamental to politics and parliamentary democracy. It is extraordinary that we still have little meaningful and well-informed scrutiny of the details of our budgets and funding allocations to Departments, outside of the fairly cursory examination joint committees do with their analysis of spending in their line Departments.

Nothing we do impacts on the lives of the people we represent more than how we plan to allocate their hard-earned resource. Yet there is incredibly little interest in the process and very few voices calling for real reform and greater parliamentary functions in budgeting, as set against what might be described as the overweening power of the Executive. We have had some improvements in the budgetary oversight and scrutiny process in recent years, with the creation of the budgetary oversight committee, the Parliamentary Budget Office and, arguably, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council.

I say all of this in the context of the damaging farce that is the process to agree an Estimate for the Department of Health for 2024. Strictly speaking, we are discussing resources for this year, but the same applies to the fictional budget allocated to the Department for last year. There are patients paying the price today for the inadequacy of that budget. There is no point going into all the details as they were well ventilated and interrogated in this House and in committees over the past few weeks. However, the overall point is worth making. I do not use the word "farce" lightly, especially when the price of underbudgeting our health service, which has been routinely the case for many years, will be paid, and is being paid today, by sick and vulnerable citizens. The process has been a farce from start to finish. We have heard all the bellyaching by the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green Party TDs who gave their imprimatur to the health Estimates. The same people will be populating our airwaves over the next few weeks and months, when the impact of the health budget really starts to hit home.

I do not want to personalise this in any way but if there is blame or, more appropriately, responsibility to be allocated and apportioned, then it is the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, who should own it. As I have noted before in the House, it could be said that the fundamental job a Minister has to do is provide a reasonable working Estimate that can be approved and secured for his Department and agencies for the year ahead. The Minister, Deputy Donnelly, could not and did not do that. Rather than get on with the job, he started to get his excuses in first by doing the rounds of the studios saying he and the HSE cannot work with the allocation he had secured. In any other western European democracy, especially where parliamentary oversight is effective and is seen to really matter, the Minister would be fetching his coat or, if he could not find his coat, the parliament would find it for him. Principally and most importantly, all of us who depend on a functioning and fit health service will suffer through stretched or non-existent services and recruitment embargoes that are, in effect, already in place. It was referenced earlier by another Deputy on the Order of Business that Fórsa members are in dispute with the HSE at the moment because of a recruitment embargo that was implemented last autumn, well before the new situation in which the HSE finds itself. That is having a real impact on the delivery of health services in our country. There is a lack of accountability and transparency around how we do budgets and the function of this Parliament in that regard. It is a question of trust, credibility and accountability. If Ministers are providing fictitious budgets that they know in their hearts are simply not up to the job of delivering a decent service to the people we represent, then that is very serious indeed.

Also very serious was IFAC's stinging critique of budget 2024, which it issued just a few days ago. In IFAC's ten years or so in existence, this has to be the most damning indictment and critique it has made of any budget. Its criticism is relevant to this year as well and, strictly speaking, we are discussing resources this year and into early next year. The council refers to the ongoing three-card trick of using the gimmickry, as it describes it, of core and non-core spending. The latter is increasingly starting to look like permanent spending. The responsible thing to do would be to account for and record that spending responsibly and appropriately. IFAC's report is so scathing that it demands a detailed and formal response from the Minister for Finance, not merely a defensive opinion piece in a Sunday newspaper. We all read the Minister's defensive article in the Business Post this week. IFAC really has shown its teeth and alarm bells should be ringing in the Government. The council's evidence is quite striking and needs to be taken seriously. It demands a detailed response from the Minister.

Society demands a practical fiscal and economic response from the Government, considering what the country has gone through in recent years. There is absolutely no doubt about that. Governments' multiplicity of priorities and the balancing act they need to perform are very different from the very strict agenda and strict responsibilities of IFAC. However, the poorly targeted nature of this year's decisions and, indeed, one could argue, the decisions taken last year and the year before that, are becoming much more apparent. We know the biggest issue the State and its citizens have been facing is the cost-of-living crisis. As a result of those poorly targeted responses, the kinds of tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the better-off, including wheezes like the energy credit that applies universally regardless of means or income, are having the effect of keeping inflation higher for longer. As we know, the people impacted most by that are those on low and modest incomes, who will require interventions from the State again next year because of the actions by the Government this year and last year. That will mean keeping inflation at an elevated level for far longer than ought to be the case, at cross-purposes with the ECB approach in terms of interest rates. That is the impact of the way the Government has used the only tool available to it to control inflation. The criticism by IFAC needs to be taken more seriously than any other of its critiques have been taken in the past. It is a damning critique. It must be taken on board and it demands more than an opinion piece response from the Minister for Finance. It demands a detailed response and the Minister should publish that response.

Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú

On some level, we are dealing with a technical issue in respect of capital carryover. Deputy Conway-Walsh has spoken about the issues in regard to capital expenditure and the wider budgetary issues that are impacting detrimentally at this time on the running of our health services. In the limited time available to me, I will refer to a number of capital projects.

It goes without saying that we need to ensure there is funding for the Narrow Water Bridge A5 project, which is needed not only for infrastructural connectivity but also from a safety point of view. We must make sure the State steps up to the mark.

Not for the first time, I raise the huge issues with drainage schemes and wastewater schemes, particularly in Dundalk. We now have a drainage plan or, at least, plans for a drainage plan. We have seen the issues with flooding in Dundalk in the past while. We know there are flooding issues in north County Louth. Last night, there was flooding in Glenmore, Tullagh and Omeath. The OPW and the council must ensure all mitigations and assessments are done as quickly as possible. Antóin Watters would not forgive me if I did not bring that up.

I draw attention to two major road projects. The N2 project between Castleblayney, Carrickmacross and Ardee is moribund at this stage because insufficient moneys have been released. That needs to be addressed. In the case of the N53 Dundalk to Castleblayney project, the CPOs are live but the council is waiting for approval from TII. I have put in parliamentary questions about this. Funding needs to be approved by TII to ensure work is started as soon as possible. It is an absolute necessity.

Deputy Róisín Shortall

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate and to highlight the Social Democrats concerns about the Government's funding of key public services. While I will refer to some of the amounts provided for in the Bill, I begin my contribution by raising the most pressing spending issue of the day, which is what would appear to be the deliberate decision by the Minister for public expenditure to underfund the health service. A €2 billion shortfall in the health budget is indefensible. It seems the Government is in complete denial about the impact of this decision.

The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, seems to believe he is punishing the Department of Health and the HSE but, in effect, it is patients who are being punished. Since budget day, I and others have been raising significant concerns about the hole in the health budget but the Government has buried its head in the sand. In fact, it is not just about what is likely to happen next year. We knew from the start of this year there was a €2 billion hole in this year's budget allocation. A senior member of the HSE board resigned over that matter. We know there was a significant amount of argument between the Department of the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and the Department of Health, but they and the Government still proceeded with it. The Government knew starting 2023 that there was a significant deficit, and it looks like it will do the same for 2024. With this reckless decision, it has stymied future spending and recruitment in key clinical programmes such as cancer and stroke care. It has also forced the HSE to lose significant momentum in improving health services under Sláintecare, with a swingeing and wide-ranging recruitment freeze.

Even the State's fiscal watchdog, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, has issued a scathing assessment of this year's budget on several fronts and specifically called out the underfunding of the health service. In its fiscal assessment report, IFAC directly challenges the argument that the growing demand on the health service is a surprise to anyone. The report states, "The increase in demand over the last four years has been predictable based on demographics." It is predictable and should come as no surprise to anybody. If the Department of public expenditure had done the future planning work and looked at the census figures and a lot of other data that is available, it would have understood the demographic changes were entirely predictable. Likewise, IFAC states the increase in demand expected through the next four years is also predictable. In a briefing video on the report, Professor Michael McMahon, the acting chair of IFAC, was even more forthright in his analysis, stating that overruns in health obvious before budget day were not catered for sufficiently in the budget.

Many of us on this side of the House have been raising these points with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, since budget day, but he has dismissed our arguments completely. I do not think he can do so in respect of IFAC, the Government's own watchdog. The projections put forward by IFAC show that, based on existing service levels over the period between 2025 and 2030, demographic costs will add approximately €1 billion per annum to health spending. When wages and inflation are included, the annual standstill costs average at €1.6 billion. That is before one looks at new services, innovation or drugs or any of the reform programme that is currently under way. There can be no denying that the Government is knowingly underfunding the health service this year and next year. It is not just the Opposition calling the Minister out on this; it is the Government's own watchdog.

Furthermore, we now know that dire warnings from the CEO of the HSE were given scant attention by the Department of public expenditure. In fact, the Department denied even receiving the letter from Mr. Gloster. The letter was forwarded by the Secretary General of the Department of Health to the Department of public expenditure. It outlined "significant and punitive risks to the public" if the health allocation was not increased. It later emerged the letter had been received by the Department of public expenditure even though its receipt had been denied. This matter is indicative of the dysfunctionality of the relationship between the Departments of health and public expenditure, as well as the dysfunctionality in terms of the basis on which funding is allocated. It is so serious that the Oireachtas health and finance committees will have a joint session early in the new year. The Department of public expenditure has been invited to appear at the meeting. The committees will go through chapter and verse of how this important letter with those dire warnings from Bernard Gloster was not acted upon within the Department. It is not good enough to brush things aside and say there is always a deficit in health. There were clear warnings. In the past three, four or five months, including in the lead-up to the budget, the Minister for Health and his officials were clear in respect of the need to maintain that momentum for reform, but also to ensure we took account of the growing and ageing population.

Of course, on several occasions recently the supplementary allocation to the Department of Health - there tends to be a supplementary allocation every year - has gone into the base for the following year. At some point, one must call a halt to this pretence, where an inadequate budget is provided at the start of the year and then, inevitably, there has to be a supplementary allocation at the end of the year. We have to recognise the actual cost of meeting the health needs of the population, particularly in the context of a reform programme that is aiming to bring about a fully functioning public health service, given that we are so out of line with the rest of Europe. Doing so is the political imperative, yet there has not been the required follow-through on it from the Department of public expenditure or, it seems, the Minister. When I raised this with the Taoiseach last week, he said it happens sometimes, but the Government was not going to agree to put the supplementary allocation into the base for 2024. That would be one way of doing it. It is clear that serious errors were made in the build-up to the budget. Given all the commentary since then, including from IFAC, as well as the fact that services are now seriously compromised due to the recruitment freeze, which has also given rise to industrial action, we should be taking that step and availing of that mechanism to push the additional allocation into the base. Again, it is not only me saying that; IFAC has stated that there needs to be a recognition of the increased demand for funding and that the additional funding from this year should be going into the base for next year. At what point will people get real about the need to fund the health service adequately and stop this charade of underfunding every year and then requiring a supplementary allocation at the end of the year?

I have concentrated my time on this area because it is critical. Another point is there was tremendous momentum achieved in the implementation of Sláintecare in the past two years . There is now a major question mark over that, however. At the end of the day, the Government must accept that reform costs money. Unless it is prepared to fund that up front, we will never see the kind of reform to which the Irish people are entitled.

Deputy Mairéad Farrell

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach agus feicim go bhfuil grúpa mór sa Ghailearaí. Nílim cinnte cárb as dóibh ach fearaim fáilte rompu ar fad.

Inniu, táimid ag plé le hairgead caipitil a bheidh á chur ar aghaidh go dtí an bhliain seo chugainn. Nuair atá os cionn €500 milliún i gceist, agus nuair a fheicimid na bóithre, na droichid agus na céanna i gConamara agus ar na ceithre oileán amach ó chósta na Gaillimhe, caithfidh mé a rá nach n-aontaím go bhfuil an oiread sin airgid nach bhfuil caite againn i mbliana. Nuair a bhreathnaímid ar a leithéidí Ceantar na nOileán, ar chaoi na mbóithre, ar na droichid, agus ar na céanna atá ann fiú amháin, is léir go bhfuil i bhfad níos mó airgid caipitil ag teastáil ó Chomhairle Chontae na Gaillimhe ionas go bhfuil siad in ann an t-airgead sin a chaitheamh ar an infreastruchtúr bunúsach sin.

Deirim i gcónaí maidir le Conamara go bhfuil infreastruchtúr bunúsach ann sna cathracha nach bhfuil ann faoin tuath. Má bhreathnaímid ar bhóthar Chuan na Luinge, go háirithe, feicimid na tuilte atá ann agus na deacrachtaí atá ag daoine agus iad ag dul chuig an obair mar gheall go bhfuil tuilte ar bóthar Chuan na Luinge. Chomh maith leis sin, dá mba rud é go raibh otharcharr ag teastáil, cén bealach a thógfadh sé nuair atá tuilte i mbealach an otharchairr sin nach bhfuil sé in ann dul tríd? Tuigim céard atá á phlé againn ach tá €500 milliún i gceist a theastaíonn i gcomhair buninfreastruchtúr i gConamara.

Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Tacaím go huile is go hiomlán leis an Teachta Farrell maidir leis an easpa infheistíochta atá á dhéanamh laistigh den Ghaeltacht go háirithe maidir leis an infreastruchtúr agus ní díreach an infreastruchtúr ó thaobh bóithre ach an t-infrastruchtúr eile atá de dhíth chun a dhéanamh cinnte de go leanann an pobal ansin ag maireachtáil i gceart.

Níl ach nóiméad go leith agam chun déileáil leis an mBille an-tábhachtach seo. Is trua a laghad ama is atá agam. Pléifidh mé leis na leasuithe atá agam nuair a thiocfaidh muid go dtí Céim an Choiste agus ní dhéileálfaidh mé leo siúd anseo.

Go traidisiúnta, níl i gceist anseo ach cleachtas cuntasaíochta - nó is é sin a deirtear linn - chun íoc as na seirbhísí atá ag an Stát agus beagnach €80 billiún atá i gceist leis. Leagtar síos táblaí a thaispeánann an chaoi a caitheadh an t-airgead sin sna heagrais Stáit agus sna Ranna éagsúla. Seachas ceann amháin, déileáltar leis na Vótaí sin i gcoistí agus bíonn díospóireacht ar theidil dhifriúla na Vótaí sin. Nuair a leagtar síos sa tábla iad, léiríonn sé an difríocht mhór agus an chodarsnacht idir Vótaí na Ranna difriúla. Léiríonn sé sin domsa, mar a dúirt an Teachta a labhair romham, an fhadhb bhunúsach atá sa Roinn Sláinte. Tá sé an-mhór ó thaobh caiteachais de, ach is léir domsa ón uair a toghadh mé go bhfuil fadhb bhunúsach ann nach féidir le daoine na figiúirí cearta a chur os ár gcomhair bliain i ndiaidh bliana.

Deputy Mattie McGrath

I may be sharing time with my colleagues if they arrive. As we know, the Appropriation Bill is pivotal financial legislation. It is on the horizon and carries the weight of Ireland's fiscal decisions. As the end of the year approaches, the legislation serves a dual role, providing legal backing to the 2023 expenditure and authorising the capital carryover of funding from 2023 to 2024. That is a very important mechanism. It is very important that we deal with these issues in the House.

The Minister is gone like snow off a ditch. He is so disrespectful to our group. He is the fellow who wants to be European Commissioner. With the report cards from the different watchdogs, the fiscal council, the OECD and everybody else, it is back to school he should be going - national school. The Government thinks we can play these games with the financial situation especially with the HSE being short €2 billion. It has been described as a three-card trick by one of the watchdogs. They have cut the massive runaway budget in health. It is unbelievable to be short by €2 billion ever before the budget was even brought in.

We have infrastructure projects up and down the country. The N24 was to have been upgraded to become the M24. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, who is the Minister of State's colleague, did not want it at all. He now wants to build a pony-and-cart road, going back to a single carriageway like 100 years ago. It is the same with every project in rural Ireland. Water schemes like the one in Clonmel will need to wait another 15 years. We are told it will be 2030 or 2035 before we have a project with water from the river.

The Government has money for everything - manna from heaven - and all it wants to do is play games with it. The three-card trick, tomfoolery I call the way it is dealing with money here. You think the people are stupid, but the people know what is going on, the watchdogs know what is going on and thankfully they are now speaking out about how you are dealing with these budgetary issues. It is shocking that you can announce budgets with no money to back them up and promise everything with the spin-doctors regurgitating everything else.

You are demonising the farmers when it comes to water pollution. In actual fact, I would say that 90% of the pollution is caused by local authorities, other public authorities and some industries. The Environmental Protection Agency is negligent in its duties because it will not look there and instead goes after the farmers and demonises them. The three-card trick, the four-card trick and all the tricks you want to play are just not good enough. We need to get accountability in here. Thankfully we have a debate on this legislation, albeit short. We do not have debates normally. It is just pass the figures and away you go with a wink and a nod. You should hang your heads in shame. If you are thinking of sending the Minister for public expenditure out to Brussels to represent us, God help us and God help Ireland. With the three-card tricks, he cannot face questions or criticism here. He has the arrogance and pomposity to tell us we do not know anything and he knows it all. He will find out in Europe. They will find him out before he even arrives there.

Deputy Michael Collins

Despite an upswing in capital expenditure, Ireland lags behind the other EU-15 nations in critical infrastructural projects. The recent Irish Fiscal Advisory Council report underscores this, particularly in addressing the housing crisis, requiring the construction of 170,000 homes, which is six times what will be built this year, for Ireland to reach the EU-15 average. Political manoeuvres and potential job changes may be in progress, but the Government's significant failure to overhaul planning processes is impeding residential construction. Employment in the construction sector fell by 65% from 236,000 in 2007 to 83,400 in 2012 after Fianna Fáil and the Green Party crashed the economy. In the 2000s, Ireland was building up to 90,000 homes a year. This was done by a construction workforce. However, in 2023 despite an increased construction workforce of approximately 169,000, it is clear that we do not have enough people working in the sector. The anticipated housebuilding is noticeably lower than it needs to be, laying bare systematic issues.

When we talk about infrastructure projects, there needs to be a fair share of the money spent all over Ireland and not just in specific places. The N71 and the R586 are two main roads leading into west Cork, but they have not had a brown cent spent on them. Those responsible are not even filling potholes - they have even given up on that. There is not a passing bay. Two bypasses in Bandon have lain idle for 20 or 30 years. The Innishannon bypass lies idle. They just forgot about it. The Bantry bypass is lying idle. Why is the money not being spend fairly around the country and not turning your back on it.

The previous speaker, Deputy McGrath, spoke about sewerage systems. Raw sewage is pouring into the seas and instead we chase the poor farmer. Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens are doing a very good job at getting the farmer out of business. That poor unfortunate is crucified by the Government while raw sewage is going down into the sea. We need a fair distribution of the funds. I look at places around Clonakilty where the sewerage systems are in an appalling condition. If we do not do something for these people, we will have water that is contaminated. It is not being contaminated by the farmers but by the local authorities.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about important matters relating to Kerry. The Killarney bypass is otherwise known as the Cork-Kerry economic corridor. Gladly part of that was opened between Baile Bhuirne and Macroom, but our side of it from Farranfore to Lissivigeen and from Lissivigeen to Castlelough on the Muckross Road is a vital project to help alleviate the traffic jams on the Killarney bypass we have now. There are 23,000 vehicle movements each day on that at the height of the season, and it may be more at times. It is choking our town of Killarney.

Imagine all the traffic that comes down from Moll's Gap, from the Cork side and the Bantry side as far back as Castlecove on the Ring of Kerry and back then from Berehaven and Castletownbere. All that traffic is brought in from the Muckross Road. It goes around Kenmare Place choking the whole area. There is traffic there that has no business going to Killarney, because they have business further up the county, such as in Tralee and elsewhere. They have no business whatsoever coming in there.

There is the fact that six dangerous junctions are being impacted by the loss of this bypass. There is the like of Ballykissane, where we have been calling for a roundabout. There are so many things involved here. There is Madam's Hill, the Kilcummin junction and the junction at Farranfore. There is mayhem there where people are trying to access the N22 coming from Firies and as far west as Dingle. All that traffic is trying to get onto that road. Currow and Scartaglen are on the other side. People have been killed at this junction.

We have been trying to get this bypass advanced for at least 24 years. There was a big hullabaloo back in 2003 or 2004 in the Great Southern Killarney. The plans were shown. They were wonderful plans. Now, that is all at a standstill. It is in abeyance. Even TII does not have the funding to show us the preferred route. Four routes have been discussed in the past number of years. Much planning and development are being held up because of this hold-up and because of the fact that TII cannot come up with the route that was going to be sanctioned because they do not have the funding. The Minister for Transport stopped that this year. It was supposed to proceed but it was cancelled. We are waiting. There is a great TII team working out of Castleisland. They are doing their very best. I refer to people like Paul Neary and several genuine men who have been there for years. This project has been held up. We deserve fair play like everyone else.

Likewise, there are the treatment plants. There are no treatment plants in so many of our towns and villages that have been left behind. Our communities cannot progress until they get the basic rights that are needed to help them get planning in order that they can build homes and put a roof over their heads. These things are hurting the people of Kerry. I am asking the Minister of State to address them as soon as possible.

Deputy Matt Shanahan

I previously raised my concerns to the effect that the 2024 budget is not good for Ireland. I might add that it was also not a good budget for my constituency of Waterford. As I outlined on budget day, this budget breaks the fiscal rules that have been adopted by the Government to control State spending. It breaks ranks with the advice from IFAC, a body we designed purposely to keep budgets and Government expenditure under close scrutiny. This is even more alarming when one considers the exceptional windfalls that we are presently receiving in corporation tax. In effect, we are actually operating a budget deficit without them. I also highlighted on budget day how it appears that every Department is getting a bump, as is every part of the Government, like they always do. I also described how the Government is giving out participation awards without any connection to performance or delivery, as well as how we have failed in a time of full employment not to consider the reallocation of other Government resources to Departments where they are badly needed. Nothing has been done in that regard.

I also highlighted how the south east, midlands and Border regions are not fully at this national "spendathon". GDP continues to fall in these regions. I know there will be journalists in Dublin who will say "Oh, here we go with parish politics yet again; displaying no understanding of national issues". I might ask the Minister of State, as well as the Government, what is more of a national issue to every taxpaying citizen of this country than understanding how their money is spent? What is wrong with people asking where the money is going? I cannot say with certainty where the money is going. Yet, I can say with absolute certainty where it is not going. It is certainly not coming to the south-east region. It is certainly not coming in any equitable form to my city and county of Waterford.

I will say to the Minister of State that large parts of Ireland are increasingly angry and marginalised by the parish-pump politics that is going on in the Cabinet at the moment, where the majority of spending is going between Dublin and Cork. You need to have spent a long time in the Dáil bubble to think it is a good idea to spend 50%, 60% and even 70% of all State capital investments in Dublin, where 29% of the population resides.

I am not sure if the Minister of State takes note of other financial advice that is independent to what the Government gets. I highlight the South East Economic Monitor, which is an academic journal that is published quarterly by three academics in Waterford Institute of Technology, WIT, and has been going for quite a number of years. They go to all the individual competitive sectors within the south-east economy to understand how we are doing within the Government programme. I will send it to the Minister of State, and I hope he will bring it to the attention of the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform and the Minister for Finance, to understand the very significant shortcomings.

I will highlight a couple I have raised before in this House. There are nine model 4 hospitals in the country. University Hospital Waterford is the most efficient of them. I am sure the Minister of State knows the hospital quite well. It hospital stepped up to and beyond the mark to deal with fallout from the fire damage at Wexford General Hospital earlier in the year. Waterford had to take all the emergency department patients who would normally be sent to Wexford and triage them. The authorities there did that with no additional financial support from the Government, other than allowing some of the Wexford staff to go to Waterford. As part of that expenditure, they have built up a very significant accrual of costs. I understand it is more than €7 million. They have not been paid that by the Ireland East Hospital Group. That was an exceptional expenditure.

At the same time, they have had to close a unit they set up in Kilcreene. This was a surgical step-down unit with 12 beds and was costing approximately €1.7 million per year. It was doing really excellent work and taking a lot of pressure off the orthopaedic department and the main orthopaedic trauma unit at University Hospital Waterford. It was dealing with south-east patients, particularly those geriatric patients who required a lot of rehabilitation post-surgery. That unit has been shut down because we did not have the money to support it at the time of all this largesse.

In addition, a capital spending programme was announced by the Government in July. The quantum of funding for that programme was €650 million. It was to be given to the nine model 4 hospitals. What happened? Eight of those hospitals shared that €650 million dividend. University Hospital Waterford, a hospital with the highest level of procedures in terms of staff ratio of any other hospital, was given nothing from that budget. There was nothing by way of capital spend, despite the fact that we have been crying out down there for five years for additional capital infrastructure and beds. We remain the least funded of all the model 4 hospitals in the country. There was no recognition whatsoever from the Government in the budget of that.

As the Minister of State is probably aware, no money was provided, in spite of a commitment by Government, which was repeatedly given here by the Tánaiste, Taoiseach and the Minister for Health, to open the seven-day cath lab service for emergency heart attack patients. Now, with the health recruitment freeze, that is still in abatement. The earliest it will be done will probably March, April or May of next year. That is a disgrace, particularly in view of the commitments that were given in this House.

I will also raise the issue of higher education. I am sure the Minister of State is well aware of the lofty promises made by his Government colleague, the Minister, Deputy Harris, to the south east when the amalgamation that gave rise to the creation of the South East Technological University was put forward. The highest functioning institute of technology in the country, WIT, was rammed into that association on the basis of transformational change. What transformation has occurred in the interim? There has been none. We have been excluded completely from national university spending. To date, the Government have now committed more than €700 million to national student accommodation, but this is solely for the national universities. The technological universities still have no borrowing framework in place to allow them to compete for any of that funding.

Bear in mind that Waterford Institute of Technology, WIT, was the first institute of technology and the only one in the country to develop its own student accommodation more than 15 years ago and the thanks we got is to be excluded from all of that funding.

The other area I wish to point out to the Minister of State concerns, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and the roads budget. Is the Minister of State aware what Waterford got in the roads budget from the Department of Transport this year? It received €1 million to scope out a BusConnects service for the region. Let me compare that to what Cork got. It received over €1 billion from the transport fund to develop the Dunkettle interchange, the Ringaskiddy bypass, the Dublin to Limerick motorway and to look at electrification and light rail in Cork city. There is a significant and gaping disparity in the treatment by the Government of the regions and I am only talking about the south east. To be fair to the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, Deputy Harkin, I heard her speak only in the past week or ten days about her own region of the north west and the Border area. We need to have a proper functioning dashboard by way of understanding where the Government funding goes.

I brought a Private Members' Bill, with the support of the Regional Group, to this House two weeks ago, the Capital Supply Service and Purpose Report Bill, which would give a look back on all capital spending five years from the date of reporting. That will hopefully go to Committee Stage and I hope to see that Bill progressed and enacted. Until we have something better than what we have now, what has taken place at Cabinet over the past three and half years and what is likely for the next six to 12 months of this Government, will continue without reform it would appear. I do not know how the Government expects to stand in the regions after all of this capital has been washed through the system, and it saying what it has delivered for the country.

I welcome the cost-of-living supports but we need strategic infrastructure drivers to help the regions to compete on a level with the very large urban centres. That is not happening. We are getting political patronage which is running wild at this stage. I ask that the Minister of State take this point up with his colleagues.

Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne

Like many colleagues in this House, I was also very interested in the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, report and, in particular, its analysis in the area of health. We have heard many comments from the Government benches in recent weeks about just how surprised the members were about the inevitable underfunding or overrun in the Department of Health. I understand that commonsense can sometimes be in short supply here but the ageing population in this country is an absolute fact and has been discussed at length in this House by many Members from all sides for the past number of months.

As we get older, we require more care. More older people equals more resources needed and according to IFAC the trend of ageing populations and the services required for the past four years matches perfectly. The increase in demand has been largely predictable and it will stay predictable for the next four years. I do not know how this Government missed that point. Maybe it is something to do with all of the focus on tax cuts and one-off so-called cost-of-living measures which further divide the country economically. IFAC will say that the Government did not miss that.

The public fight between the Minister and the HSE has also been quite embarrassing and this Bill is lacking the necessary accommodations made to ensure the sustainability of our health service, especially with respect to surge capacity and new urgent and emergency care plan, UEC, measures. To purposefully force a State agency, arguably the most important State agency, into the red and then to bury one's head in the sand is a complete failure of leadership.

On the point of universal measures, Social Justice Ireland has commented that by failing to target and make permanent certain financial measures, budget 2024 has failed to deliver on child poverty which now in Ireland, in the final days of 2023 running into Christmas, affects one in seven children in our State. Some 190,000 children are in poverty and it is an absolute disgrace.

Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Deputy Malcolm Noonan)

I will respond to some of the points raised by some of the Deputies. A number of Deputies, including Deputies Mattie McGrath and Danny Healy-Rae, raised the issue of water and wastewater infrastructure and, certainly, on the capital side, Uisce Éireann is fully funded to continue its work. It has a very ambitious programme of work to address water and wastewater infrastructure, including in rural areas across the country. That work is progressing, albeit that there are delivery challenges but that is recognised.

Deputy Michael Collins raised the issue around the capacity to deliver housing. Again, through the Minister, Deputy Harris, there has been a very strong throughput of apprentices through the apprenticeship programme.

I disagree with some of the Deputies on balanced regional development. There has been significant investment in the regions right across the country. I note the points made by Deputy Shanahan also. As a Deputy from the south east, I can see the significant investment coming to the south-east region. The South East Technological University, SETU, is part of a much bigger project for the region. It is most welcome that we have gotten here so quickly with it and the Carlow campus, similarly, is doing very well and is expanding both its range and its support to the wider catchment in the south-east region.

I note the points raised by Deputy Shanahan, which he has done on a number of occasions, on the cath lab for University Hospital Waterford. He also mentioned the roads programme.

Addressing the point raised by Deputy Wynne on the targeted measures to address child poverty, the Government is playing a very strong role in addressing child property and, certainly, we have seen in successive budgets that it is regarded by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, as being progressive both in terms of childcare but also in the fact that the Taoiseach has established a child poverty unit within his own Department. That sends out a strong signal that we will continue to make significant investment in childhood education, welfare and development over the course of this Government.

The funding set out in the Appropriation Bill represents a significant investment in public services and infrastructure. Some €95.9 billion, in gross terms, was allocated as part of the Estimates process, including Supplementary Estimates of €6 billion. This reflects the Government's responsive and flexible fiscal policy approach to dealing with external challenges, including the State's response to the war in Ukraine and the provision of humanitarian supports in the provision of additional cost-of-living supports.

The Appropriation Bill also provides for the capital carryover of of €532.1 million from 2023 to 2024, which is 4.2% of the total 2023 gross voted capital allocation of €12,589 million. Capital carryover is useful mechanism to ensure the national development plan, NDP, can deliver on key projects.

At the end of November capital expenditure stood at €8.7 billion representing an increase of 29% in spending for the same period last year. This has supported the delivery of additional school places, investment in our healthcare facilities, and our transport services and housing which were all issues raised by Deputies. Budgeted capital expenditure in 2024 of €12.5 billion is over two and half times the allocation distributed in 2017 of €4.6 billion prior to the first national development plan.

The NDP sets a longer term framework for public investment which links to national strategic objectives for the country out to 2040. In the NDP, the Government is committed to an ambitious programme of total public investment of €165 billion over the period 2021 to 2030. Our ultimate goal is to provide sustainable infrastructure to meet the additional 1 million population by 2040 and, most importantly, delivering much needed schools, homes, hospitals and transport.

Question put and agreed to.