The experience for the country has been disastrous. This country needs an opportunity to break free from the stranglehold of the Coalition. Under a Fianna Fáil administration we would enjoy a creative and imaginative restoration of our economic vitality and social confidence.
The fourth budget of this Coalition Government must be set in the context of the dismal performance of the Taoiseach and the Government over the past three years. This period in office has brought the country near to a state of economic and social collapse. There is a hopelessness and a lack of confidence that have never been there before. Pride in their country has been taken from the people. The Taoiseach has given no leadership and no inspiration. The Government have let unemployment rise to 240,000 people and up to 30,000 young people are emigrating on a yearly basis. There is no sign that the Government have any idea how to tackle the problem. Taxation has risen to exorbitant levels and the burden of public debt and cumulative budget deficits has soared. There are few families who do not face difficulties in trying to make ends meet.
It is our view that the Taoiseach is personally responsible in large measure for the present disastrous state of the Irish economy. It is now openly admitted that he has successfully pushed his own half baked economic analyses and theories. He seriously misjudged the state of the economy when he first came into office and gave total priority, to the exclusion of all other economic objectives, to balancing the books through the imposition of higher taxes. As the failure of this approach became increasingly evident, instead of changing it, as he should have, he persisted blindly in piling tax upon tax in every single year until we had reached the present deep-seated financial crisis which made it impossible for the Government to produce a credible budget this year.
The Irish economy is in a state of diminishing returns. The influence of the Taoiseach on the economic life of this country has been almost uniformly disastrous. In the 1973 General Election a Coalition programme, largely put together by the present Taoiseach, offered a free spending bonanza for the first time ever to the Irish electorate, including the abolition of VAT on food, the phased abolition of rates, the abolition of estate duties, old age pensions without means test, and other beautiful carrots for the people to take up.
The first major effort in the politics of promise was largely the work of the Taoiseach. As the record shows, he used his influence on the 1973-77 Coalition Government to encourage the running up of a large current budget deficit and heavy foreign borrowing. As a result, 1974 was the turning point, the year when Ireland first ceased to be a creditor nation. He was the prime mover in starting the modern financial difficulties of this State. In the 1981 election we had another false and deceptive programme offered to the electorate by the present Taoiseach. He falsely promised housewives a weekly payment of £9.60 per week and a reduction in the standard rate of income tax to 25 per cent. We had full page advertisements in the national newspapers at that time offering housewives £9.60 per week. Shortly after, when the Taoiseach took office, we had full page advertisements telling people to apply for it, that the money was there and all they had to do was to apply. During the 1981 election campaign and afterwards in office the Taoiseach engaged in an immensely damaging political campaign to undermine confidence in the solvency of the economy from which, four years later, this country has not recovered. That campaign had the sole objective of gaining short term political advantage by blackening his political opponents and proclaiming his own virtue.
One must now look at the long list of failed initiatives introduced by the Taoiseach and the Government in that short period. We were promised tax credits to introduce equity into the tax system and they have never been introduced. It is now admitted that they are inequitable in their effects. We were promised a committee on costs and competitiveness to determine wage norms. This exercise turned out to be a complete non-event. The family income supplement was another device promoted by the Taoiseach to prove his social conscience. Its implementation was long delayed and no sooner had it been introduced than it's abolition was forecast in Building on Reality. In the event, the uptake has been poor and the impact minimal.
Then we had a Cabinet employment task force which has neither been seen nor heard of for a long time now. We are not sure if it still exists. If it does, its work surely can only be regarded as being useless. This is the Government who introduced the residential property tax which brings in minimal revenue and costs the maximum to administer and has no positive impact on finances. Up to the fourth year in office of this Government the NDC have created not one single job, but have displaced a reasonably useful and successful agency purely for political purposes.
Another political expedient introduced by this Government was the land tax from which the little lamented former Minister for Finance could not enter a single penny of assured revenue in his budget calculations this year. Another fiasco is the child benefit scheme which was to be taxable and which was to provide a big boost to low income families. When it came to the point it was impossible to administer and it has been scrapped. It is obvious that the Government and the Taoiseach have wasted time, energy and taxpayers' money on a series of half baked ideas and proposals which were never properly thought out, while the real problems had not been tackled.
We should look at the Government's principle failure documents. The joint programme for Government has long ago been discarded, its main provisions having been breached within a few months. Building on Reality missed its main targets on employment, on public service pay and the budget deficit long ago. The new industrial policy to date has not even succeeded in halting the decline in industrial employment and the cold reality is that we have a live register figure of 240,000 unemployed. We have massive emigration, though good care is taken to ensure that reliable statistics are not given. In one small parish in the western part of County Limerick local people did a survey and found that in the past three years 40 young people had left the parish and had emigrated to England and the US. The Government have not got an employment policy. The construction industry has been completely devastated with employment virtually halved since 1981. Growth has been negligible, with investment down to the level of 20 years ago. Agriculture faces a bleak future.
When we had responsibility in Government from 1977 to 1981 we created 80,000 jobs. Regrettably, under this administration we have succeeded only in losing jobs. Even though the national debt has soared from £12 billion to £20.4 billion, public capital investment has been cut by over one-third in real terms and the current budget deficit of 8.2 per cent is at a record level. Since 1982, an extra £2 billion has been extracted in tax from the public and over £0.5 billion extra is to be collected in taxes this year, a rise of almost 10 per cent. These are the facts. This budget was heralded by Government spokespersons and the Minister for Finance, who was fired, as reducing income tax, whereas we will be collecting an extra £217 million in income tax.
The Taoiseach and the Government have approved and defended the introduction of a grossly unfair and inequitable provision this year whereby the income of old age pensioners, charities and the savings of children will be taxed. The Taoiseach and the Government cannot point to one success in economic management and, even though the people will look back on the ghastly years of this Government with something close to revulsion, it would appear that the Taoiseach is already scheming to prolong the agony of this nation with another of his disastrous Coalitions.
In the difficult and dangerous circumstances of today people would wish to feel that this Government would now recognise the real extent of the damage they have done. The Government have lost their nerve under pressure. People see that they cannot be sure of the leadership of their Government and they are not satisfied that they have a leader in Government who can stand up to the pressures of Government, a person who will not collapse in a crisis.
I say to this Government and their leader that no matter how they or he try to shuffle off responsibility for the political crisis which has overtaken them, no matter how they or he try to shuffle off responsibility for the economic crisis confronting the country, no matter how the Leader of the Government in particular tries to apportion blame to other Ministers, no matter what punishment he metes out to those Ministers for their acts of commission or omission, he is the person who appointed them and he must carry responsibility for their actions and deeds. No matter what kind of juggling or balancing act the Taoiseach engages in, the people will rightly hold him accountable for the present unacceptable state of affairs. The years of this Coalition Government, 1983-86, have been the wasted years when the country went steadily downhill, difficulties mounted and national morale sank lower and lower, and it is not possible to dissociate this collapse from the ineffective and bumbling leadership of the Government and their leader. The time has now come for them to move over. They owe it to the country to go now rather than later and to make way for a Government to tackle the job which they have failed to do. This Government have shown clearly that their policies have failed. They have lost the confidence of the people, demoralised the young, depressed the remainder and deprived the old.
I want to refer briefly to the hamfisted and brutal manner in which the proposed closure of hospitals was announced by Deputy Barry Desmond, then Minister for Health and Social Welfare, on behalf of the Taoiseach and the Government. This announcement surely typifies the uncaring, insensitive and arrogant approach of this Government to the implementation of their policies. I would like to think that we have in any Government people who show care and understanding for ill people and a sensitive approach to them and to their plight.
There can be little dissension as to whether hospitals should close. We must recognise the level of dependence on hospital care for the treatment and support of mentally ill people particularly. The only justification for deinstitutionalisation and its accompanying upheaval must be that the potential and quality of life enjoyed by mentally ill persons is improved significantly by moving out of hospital and into a local community where care services are provided for them. Rigorous and continual evaluation of the achievement of this ultimate objective is essential.
We accept that the predominant policy for mental health services in the future lies in a move away from institutionally dominated mental health care towards services provided in a range of easily accessible, locally based services. The development of alternatives to hospital services is not a cheaper form of care. If the process it to be achieved effectively then sufficient moneys must be forthcoming from Government in order to ensure continuity of service both during the transition and following hospital closures. Unfortunately, the Minister for Health has made no effort to address himself clearly to these points.
The process of successful transition will be achieved only by co-operation with hospital staff who are optimistic about their role in their patients' future and who are supportive of patients and their relatives in their uncertainty, yet the manner in which this announcement was made has alienated staff and is leading quickly to major confrontation. Community services must be planned and developed on principles concerned with the enhancement of citizenship rather than the promotion of dependence and with reducing the inequalities caused by the experience of mental illness in institutionalisation. Community services must ensure that mental illness is not seen as a badge of alienation, and these objectives must permeate planning and development of locally based services.
The Minister has made no provision whatsoever to cater for the people who are being told to vacate these hospitals. This is a brutal and callous decision. I would like to appeal to the many decent minded people in both parties making up this Coalition Government for God's sake to have a talk with their members of Government and particularly with their leader and with the Minister for Health and ask them to reverse this decision. They would surely make this appeal unanimously if they could only understand the problems there for these people who are going to be ejected from these institutions. I would like to add my voice to those who have already appealed to the Minister and to the Taoiseach to do something about this inhuman and brutal decision of theirs.
I would like to say one or two words about tourism because it is an especially important area that needs encouragement and investment. It continues to be a growth industry in this country and its long term prospects with its employment potential are good. I fear that this Government have not really recognised this tourist potential. True, they have decreased the VAT rate to 10 per cent for restaurants but we must now make sure that this decrease will be passed on to the customer. This is very important.
I would like to know what the plans are, in conjunction with State agencies, to maximise the potential of this country for tourism. What incentives have the Government given to the industry to increase accommodation and provide more efficient services? There is fantastic potential here, and while I recognise that Bord Fáilte are doing an excellent job they must be given more backing and support. There is need for somebody who would have specific responsibility at the Government table for ensuring that we develop tourism as it should be developed.
I would like to make one small comment, if I may, on something said by Deputy Liam Cosgrave. I share his concern about the question of the introduction of the new National Lottery, this national raffle that obviously the Government are now falling back on in an effort to finance a number of areas. If my memory is correct, the Minister for Finance in his Budget Statement said that among other things he hoped to finance hospitals from a national lottery. We are now going to provide moneys for the hospitals from this lottery and also money for the arts, sports and the like. I welcome all the help that can be given in these areas but I want to voice a word of caution. I share Deputy Cosgrave's view that a number of voluntary charities are doing tremendous work as a result of moneys they raise through non-stop draws, weekly collections, raffles and the like, and we must make full sure that these groups are not put out of action. In particular I name one — Gael Linn. They have been doing tremendous work over the years. There are many others I could name, but I name that organisation in particular. I should like to think that all these people would be able to maintain their incomes through their organisations.
The old Irish Sweepstakes lottery for many years was a great success and for some reason or other best known to the Government those involved were not included but I hope the Irish Sweepstakes will be incorporated into the running of this lottery. It is pretty sad that in a budget debate we have to talk of such things as national lotteries. It is a sad reflection on the Government and the economy that we have to depend on lotteries to do the job for us. This Government should never be allowed to forget that there are 240,000 people unemployed and that number is growing. It would be far greater if a proper record were kept of those out of jobs and if those emigrating on a yearly basis were taken into account. We have a taxation burden that is crippling and is encouraging more and more people into the black economy.
The Government feel that they must cling on to office for their own petty, party, selfish reasons. They are aware that the general public have rejected them. The polls show that only one in four or thereabouts now supports the two Government parties. For whatever length of time they feel brazen and barefaced enough to hang on in Government, would they please do something about the real problems that face the nation? If not, would they please move out of the way, go to the country, have an election and let the people sort it out?
