They are aware of my position. There were reductions by every Department in the 1983 Estimates, although some people said Fianna Fáil would never do that. The Minister has told us that every item that was reduced in those Estimates was decided at Cabinet level. He should not give me that nonsense. It will not wash with me. The Minister should not try to convince those who have not been in a Cabinet how the system operates. If the Minister knows anything about how to run his Department he is aware that it is possible to find £50,000, £100,000 or £400,000 under a different subhead and that the Minister for Finance will be only too glad to let a Minister have whatever projects he likes in his Department. If, however, it is all to be run by the Department of Finance, as appears to be the position now, then it cannot be done. If all Ministers maintain their own independent republic and do not care what happens in any other Department it is no wonder the Government are on a hiding to nothing with the Irish people. It is no wonder that the Government ran away from the local elections because they knew they would get their answer. They will get their answer in the European elections and a resounding answer in Laois-Offaly. It is a pity that one of the colleges is not located in that constituency because the Government are inclined to change their views when sufficient pressure is put on them.
There is a request with the Department of Education for a subvention of £24,500 to keep the rural college in Ardagh, County Longford, in business. The teaching sisters there are prepared to forego their salary cheques to keep their school open because they know the benefit it is to the rural community and how well the girls they turn out are prepared for life in the household or in a career. That represents their contribution. I do not think it is unreasonable for any politician to ask the Government to match that with £24,500 from Government funds to keep that college open and give 53 young girls an opportunity to be educated in rural science, domestic economy and home management. If the Government vote that request down on Wednesday night, so be it; but when they go to the people of rural Ireland they will get their answer.
It has been said time and again that the Government are only interested in Pale politics and if matters do not concern Dublin city and the east coast they are not of any interest to the Government. This type of decision demonstrates that that is the real situation. An amount of £24,500 is being requested in subvention towards the salary of the lay people teaching in that college and if the Minister does not consent to this he will be creating six redundancies in that area, putting six people out on the dole away from teaching for the sake of £24,500. If the Minister for Labour has to give them redundancy pay or otherwise then they will be paid a damn sight more than £24,500 between six. Also 53 young girl students will be deprived of the opportunity of furthering their careers and the Minister will have them walking around the streets as he has 220,000 people walking around the streets because he does not know what makes the economy tick or when he is getting good value for money. The financial position must be put right but using a sledgehammer to crack a nut is not the way to do it. He can get better value for the money he is spending. The people have no idea how he managed to push up the national debt by £2,900 million, yet he comes in here talking about the few quid which could be very well spent and make a decent contribution to rural life.
The Minister does not seem to recognise that those colleges have given sterling service down through the years, that they are making a fundamental contribution to home management. It is just as hard for people in rural Ireland today to manage a household budget as it is for the Minister's colleague, the Minister for Finance, to manage his budget. Yet the Minister is prepared to take away the training and career prospects from these students and to say that rural Ireland does not need good housekeeping. He has been preaching good housekeeping since he came into Government and long before that. Indeed, he has not been very successful at it so far and he will not be successful if he makes this sort of decision.
The Minister and the Government have stood back from the vital decisions necessary to put this economy right. He knows them as well as I do. They preached for two elections before they came into office that current expenditure had to be cut down. They talked about miserly decisions and tried to pass the blame to somebody else; yet they took the soft option in two successive budgets of reducing capital expenditure because they were not prepared to take the unpopularity or the political flak for some decisions that had to be taken. However, saving £24,500 at the expense of the rural college in Ardagh will not put the country's finances right. When the people elected the Government they elected a Government they thought would look after all the interests of all the people and not just the Pale politics of Dublin and the east coast.
There are many options and solutions. I would not object one iota to taking this away from the Minister's Department because somebody over there decided long ago that it should go. In his speech here tonight the Minister appeared to say that he would love to pass it on to somebody else. Let him get the money from wherever he likes and forget about this present carry-on between Ministers saying: "I was talking to the Minister for Labour and maybe he will do something". The Ministers sit at the Cabinet table I do not know how many times a week. I know that the meetings have become very boring and that Ministers are not appearing as often as they should and some of them are tired of going to them. I can see by their faces that Ministers are disillusioned because they cannot do the things they want to do, the Taoiseach rambles on and no decision is taken. All you can do is try to pass the buck to a Government 18 months out of office.
Forecasts are made up and known by the name of Estimates. The Government produced and carried through this House the budget of 1984 which brought effect to the Estimates that were produced. The Government were bound by no Estimates produced by a previous Government, by no blanket decision as to what reductions were to be made and in what areas. The Government examined the Estimates when they came in and changed any that suited them to change. Do not try to pass the buck and the responsibility down the line. The Government have the responsibility. They were elected to do it and they brought in that budget in January 1984 which implemented those decisions. They must carry the can and take the responsibility because God and the Irish people hate people who run away from their responsibilities and try to blame somebody else. That feature has been developed by this Government since they came in. It has been developed very well and very professionally by the professional handlers of this Government. It is no wonder that their faces were down on the floor last week when the opinion polls showed that people thought for the first time that the Government have gone wrong. The trend in those polls in the last while shows that it did not happen overnight. It will continue to happen because the Government have been found out 18 months after they went in. They are all talk and no action. Governments are about leadership, decision, action, not about looking into this and that, it is under consideration, we will appoint a committee, a task force, a planning board —everything under the sun that you can name. Governments are elected to rule, to lead the country, to make decisions. The Government have passed over decision-making to every conceivable task force committee, task force of Ministers, everything they could dream about, to try to get away from the responsibility.
The real problem is inherent within the Government because the two parties are ideologically different. They have no unity of purpose. They cannot agree on what to do, and when any little bit of good news comes out concerning, for instance, the National Development Corporation that the Minister seems to think is a good idea, what happens? The Minister for Industry, Trade, Commerce and Tourism and the Minister for Energy rush to the Press, one blaming the other for upstaging him. That is not what Government is all about. They must decide to make their decisions and get rid of the paralysis.
The excuse that previous Governments were to blame when they have been in government for 18 months will not wash with the people or in relation to the rural college in Ardagh. No Government can justify the closing of such an institution. I am not familiar with the other four but other speakers will line them out. This college is isolated. It is not part of a secondary operation that can use its facilities otherwise. It is a unity of purpose. The sisters there have made a contribution in good faith. They are asking for a response from the Government and expect a result from this motion tomorrow night when it will be voted on.
The Minister has plenty of time between now and then to tell this House who is going to make up the funding. We do not mind who does it. The Government can decide. The Minister can make his decision any day he likes. They have a lady Minister for Education who has had the application on her desk for quite a long time. I will accept in good faith that the Minister has been talking to the Minister for Labour. We have until tomorrow night to find out the results of the long discussions and consultations. In 1983 the same Department handed back £11.5 million into the Exchequer because they did not know what to do with it in relation to young people. An obvious way to spend spend £11.5 million is in relation to career guidance, which was referred to. The Department of Labour have money that they could not spend in 1983. Maybe they cannot spend it all in 1984 but they are not going to spend it in industrial development. They are going to produce only about 1,100 jobs this year. Money is to be got from various Departments. Other Departments may have a little money to spare but no Department would tell you.
The Government are charged with the responsibility of governing. Give people value for money. Recognise the problems of rural Ireland. They will not get smaller. Let the Minister show his concern that young girls like this have the opportunity of being educated in the role they want to play in society, that he is caring and concerned about rural Ireland. We will know from the attitude the Minister adopts tomorrow night. I hope he will take the opportunity.