Inniu fáilteoidh an Rialtas roimh ráiteas eacnamaíoch an tsamhraidh. Cé nach mbeidh sonraí an bhuiséid ar fios againn go mí Deireadh Fómhair, tá a fhios againn go bhfuil dúshláin mhóra roimh oibrithe agus teaghlaigh. Tá tacaíocht de dhíth orthu anois agus ní níos mó fógraí agus gealltanais fholmha ón Rialtas.

The Government will today publish its summer economic statement. This will be the 13th such statement published by a Fine Gael-led Government, including Governments led by the Taoiseach. It marks an important part of the budget process. It is true to say that the Irish economy has much to celebrate. We are a home of exciting businesses, both established and emerging. We have a young population, a talented and agile workforce and a record tax take. All of that is to be welcomed and none of it is to be taken for granted. However, it is also true that throughout the same period, housing has deteriorated into a disaster and the crisis in health has got worse day by day with no prospects of improving. Our young people are once again emigrating as they lose hope of having a future here in Ireland. Workers and families are not getting the services for the taxes they pay and, in fact, their taxes are being consistently wasted by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. This is happening because despite being in government for more than a decade, Fine Gael is still failing to get the fundamentals right in health, housing and planning, and in delivering large-scale projects on budget and on time. Instead we have seen a continuation of slow and gridlocked politics, and a complete failure to get the basics right so that we can deal with the challenges of today and plan for the future. That is why we need a change of direction.

While today's statement will tell us very little about the measures that will be included on October's budget, the needs for workers, families and public services are very clear. Workers and families continue to face the biggest cost-of-living crisis in a generation. Energy bills remain sky high as a result of Government inaction, while mortgage costs continue to rise. They face a deepening housing crisis. It is a housing crisis that was created and overseen by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, and which worsens by the day. Rents continue to spiral upwards and homeownership remains beyond the reach of tens of thousands of workers and families across the State. The national shame of homelessness continues unabated. The numbers of homeless people are breaking all records for all the wrong reasons. This crisis is a direct result of the Government and its policies.

In our health service, nearly 900,000 people are on hospital waiting lists. We had the worst level of hospital overcrowding last month since records began. That is why we do not need more of the same. It is why we need a change in direction. We need delivery because our people are sick and tired of listening to the Government make announcement after announcement and empty promises while it fails to deliver on the core issues. Year after year, the Government has failed to deliver affordable homes. It has failed to address rising waiting lists in our hospitals and the cost-of-living crisis. Year after year, these problems have not got better. Indeed, they have got worse. The Taoiseach has had 12 years to deliver. He has been Taoiseach for some of those 12 years. How will he ensure that what is announced today will be different? Will it continue to fail on those fundamental core areas? Will it prove the Government has finally got it and is about to change direction and provide the resources that are required to deal with the problems that have only worsened on the Taoiseach's watch?

I thank the Deputy. At approximately 4.30 p.m., the Government will publish the summer economic statement which sets out, as the Deputy said, the fiscal parameters for budget 2024, that is, the budget package for next year, which will be announced in October.

I am satisfied that it provides the kind of multibilllion euro response required to help families with the cost of living, providing for a significant welfare and pensions package, as well as for greater tax fairness.

It strikes a balance in terms of where we are in the economic cycle because we want to continue to be prudent with the national finances. We have, as the Deputy will be aware, full employment for only the second time in a generation and will record a budget surplus again next year.

I particularly want to thank the Ministers, Deputies Michael McGrath and Donohoe, for their work on the document.

The reason we will be able to produce the summer economic statement that we are this afternoon is because we have full employment, rising incomes, and record levels of trade and investment. Because of that, the Ministers this afternoon will set out the parameters of the next budget, which will include a tax package of over €1 billion to help working families put more money in their pockets, reward work and help with the cost of living and a spending package much greater than that, allowing for increases in pension and increases in welfare, as well as spending in areas that are so important, such as health, housing and education, to be increased.

It will also indicate that we will set aside all, or at least close to all, of the windfall corporation tax receipts because we do not believe it is right to make spending commitments that may be recurrent using tax receipts that may be transitory. That money will be used to help pay down debt, to be set aside for future things such as pension liabilities, infrastructure projects and demographics, as well as a small increase in capital investment in the near term.

Where the Deputy is wrong is in his assumption that a change of Government would somehow make the situation better. Of course, a change of Government would make things much worse. If we pursued the economic policies that the Deputy's party advocated, going back 12 years ago when it aligned itself with Syriza and Varoufakis and burning the bondholders etc., to its policies after that where it said we should borrow more and to its anti-business policies after that, and if we had followed the advice that we got from Sinn Féin for the past 12 years, we would have a very different summer economic statement today.

We would have homes for people. That’s what we would have.

We would not be talking about full employment. We would be talking about how we would find money to pay jobseeker's benefit. We would not be talking about record levels of trade and investment. We would be talking about a budget deficit, how we are going to borrow the money to close that deficit at what the interest rate would be, and how we would curtail spending and increase taxes to cover that. The reason we have full employment, the reason we have a budget surplus, the reason we can have tax cuts, the reason we can increase pensions, the reason we can increase pensions, the reason we can increase welfare and the reason we can invest more in health, housing and education is because we did not have a Sinn Féin Government for the past 12 years.

The reason we have record levels of homelessness in this State is because the Taoiseach and Fine Gael are in government. The reason rents are out of control is because the Taoiseach is in government and Fine Gael is in government. The reason an entire generation has given up and is emigrating to places such as Sydney, Toronto, New York and London is because Fine Gael is in government and it has locked home ownership beyond the reach of an entire generation.

Hear, hear.

The Taoiseach has been in government for 12 years. This is his 13th budget. We have had the highest record ever of overcrowding in our hospitals. The Taoiseach can talk about the millions and billions of euro but people in my constituency want to know that if they get admitted to the hospital they will not have to lie on a trolley or sit in a chair for over a day. They want to know that their son and daughter will be able to afford to rent an apartment in this State. They want to know that they will be able to live in this State. They want to know, where families are currently in emergency accommodation, that as a society we are able to respond to that and not to see it deteriorate month on month, which is happening under the Taoiseach's watch.

I have asked the Taoiseach, for his 13th budget, whether he recognises that the crises we have in housing, in health and in homelessness are as a result of the Government's policy and whether there will be anything in the summer economic statement that acknowledges a change of direction or whether it is more of the same; Fine Gael's head in the sand and the situation on housing and health will continue to get worse.

The situation is as simple as this. If we had followed Sinn Féin's economic policies for the past 12 years, we would have higher levels of unemployment, lower incomes, higher taxes, less money to spend on pensions and welfare-----

And more emigration.

-----and less money to invest in public services and infrastructure. As a result of that, we would have more homelessness, bigger problems in the health service and, rather than having more citizens coming home every year, which has been the case for the past three years, we would have more citizens leaving the State.

The Deputy mentioned the challenges in health and housing and I acknowledge them absolutely.

However, it is not fair for the Deputy to make out that no progress has been made in these areas. Just today, the Government confirmed that we have an agreement with GPs to extend GP care without fees, or free GP care, to the majority of the population.

You announced it two years ago.

We have an agreement to do it. It will be a fact by Christmas-----

You announced it last budget.

-----that every child under eight-----

This is what I am talking about. More announcements and people cannot get-----

-----every adult over 70 and people with medium incomes or less will have free GP care.

If they can get a doctor.

That is a huge step forward.

It was supposed to be delivered last month.

For the first time in the history of our State, that will be the case. The reason the Deputy has lost control again, and is shouting and interrupting me, is he does not want to hear the facts.

Shout away. Keep on shouting.

Let me give the Deputy another fact. He advocates for the National Health Service system, which is the system his party ran in Northern Ireland for a long time when it comes to health, but does he know that Irishmen and Irishwomen live two years longer than is the case in Britain? Does he know, for example-----

Irishmen and Irishwomen are in Belfast and Derry as well.

Please, Deputy.

-----that when you adjust for disability and life years, Ireland outperforms Northern Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland?

What a partitionist statement.

Does he know, for example, that waiting lists in Ireland, high as they are, are 66% lower than in Northern Ireland, where the Deputy's party ran the health service for most of 20 years, and 84% lower than in England? Why does he want to adopt systems we know do not work?