I would like to share the remainder of my time with the Minister of State at the Department of Public Enterprise, Deputy Jacob.
Private Members' Business. - Financial Resolution No. 4: General (Resumed).
Debate resumed on the following motion:
THAT it is expedient to amend the law relating to inland revenue (including value-added tax and excise) and to make further provision in connection with finance.
–(Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach).
Acting Chairman
Is that agreed? Agreed.
In highlighting the fact that this was a budget for children, the first budget in the history of State for children, in the earlier part of my contribution I focused on foster care, the new allowances for foster parents and the value of the work of those foster parents. My main aim, and that of all of us, would be to support children in their own families and ensure that they do not go into care because the best place for any child is in his or her own family. For that reason, in the context of the budget allocated for children, an extra £2 million is being allocated to family support as well.
There is a wide range of services and supports being given to families in different areas throughout the country provided by statutory organisations through the health boards and by the voluntary organisations. These services and supports are given to children who are deemed to be at risk from an early stage, whose families might need support at that early stage and who are then supported right through the process.
The projects that we will be extending include the teenage parenting project, which works through the maternity hospitals to focus on those young people who need extra help. I am also thinking of people in their own local environments where we might have springboard projects. We have announced an extra two projects, one in Darndale and one in Loughlinstown, to support those families and their children in an integrated manner so that they do not have to spend their time trying to work through the council, the corporation, the health board or the schools but that those services come to them in a recognised way.
There are many other family support projects and an evaluation of those during the year highlighted that these family support projects work. For that reason I am totally committed to ensuring that they are extended and that we target children at a young age in the context of their own families to ensure they do not find themselves in need of coming into care but that where they do come into care, the best possible care is given to them.
Having referred already to foster care, the next stage of our continuum of care is residential care, another area which needs investment and particular support. Last week I announced that an extra £7.139 million has been allocated to residential care. That is in addition to the money already being spent and in addition to the capital allocation being spent to upgrade and build facilities, particularly for children who are coming before the courts and who have special needs and behavioural disorders. Our challenge is not in building those facilities; our building programme is well on target. We have increased from 17 places when the Government came into office to 74 places. Our challenge is in the staffing of those places and to ensure that we get the very best care and therapeutic support for children with behavioural disorders. That is the aim.
Another major aim is to ensure that children who are in care have the support and guidance they need to leave care. Unfortunately, we have seen research which shows that the children who leave care are the people who end up most vulnerable and homeless. For that reason, this year we allocated money to the Mid-Western Health Board to devise models of care for our young people to enable them to reintegrate back into society. I have asked each of the health boards to ensure that in spending their money they give special attention not just to looking after the children currently in their care but to prepare them for after care.
Another key element for residential care is a social services inspectorate which we launched earlier this year. That inspectorate has come up with some serious findings and it is crucial that the health boards now act on those findings, improve conditions and ensure that they are putting in place the care plans for their children, that their staff are qualified and that they are given the necessary supports. For that reason, this budget has allocated an extra £250,000 for the social services inspectorate.
At this time of the year, and indeed at any time of the year, we are conscious of the numbers of young people who end up homeless on our streets. These are people who, for a variety of reasons – I have met them and their reasons are very diverse – have found they are unable to remain within their own family structures because of violence, drug abuse or alcohol. They do not have a structure to support them. Our aim in this society must be to ensure that children do not find themselves on the street and that there are enough outreach workers to ensure that young people who need care and support get that care and support in their own home areas. That will prevent them coming into the inner city because there is a street life and it can be difficult for them to break out of that.
An extra £5 million, which is a total of £7 million in a full year, was allocated by the Minister for Finance for youth homelessness this year. This money will allow us to target the city areas generally, but particularly the Dublin area, to ensure that we have emergency accommodation. Three new centres have been brought on-stream with 30 places, two of which are opening this month. One of those centres is in the Meath Hospital where beds will be made available for young people who need them.
We will also have outreach teams on the streets making contact with these young people and offering them the support they need. We will have downstream residential places to enable people to work towards reintegration and, most importantly, we will be appointing 300 additional child care staff in the eastern region alone to focus on the needs of these young people, ensure that they do not become homeless and that, where they do, we are able to respond to them on an emergency basis and in the long-term as well.
All of this should be seen in the context of our national children strategy which we launched last month. That strategy maps out for the next ten years the way we will provide services and supports for our young people. The strategy will be co-ordinated and driven by a national children's office which will ensure that all children's needs are met and that each Department is living up to its responsibility in looking after children. The budget allocated money for that office to ensure that each Department can work, be driven and that all of our children's needs are met.
The major need has to be the elimination of child poverty. Page one of the strategy sets that out as one of our aims. The targets must now be set by the social partners to ensure that each of them works together, and not just to deal with child poverty or to focus on it. In this document it is stated for the first time that we will eliminate child poverty. The increases in child benefit in the budget go a long way towards doing that. The removal of the 133,000 people out of the tax net also helps families and children. Focusing on and giving more to the lower paid will also ensure a better value of life for all of our children in achieving the main aim of our strategy, a strategy for all children, which is to eliminate child poverty. The other aims are to ensure that children have a voice, that their needs are understood and that they get the supports and benefits they need. That voice will be heard in a number of ways, one of which will be in the establishment of the office of the ombudsman for children. An allocation was made in the budget for the establishment of that office which will be yet another support for our children to ensure their voice is heard at different levels.
The whole area of adoption will get extra funding. The direction in the past few years towards inter-country adoption needs special support because of the length of time it is taking for assessments to be carried out and the number of social workers which are needed to carry out those assessments in a professional way. The budget allocated for the whole area of adoption, £660,000, will assist not just in revamping the Adoption Board but also in ensuring that couples who wish to look to Russia or to China can get their assessments quickly and get the support that they need.
This budget focuses very much on children in the context of their families. It focuses on children who have to come into care by supporting foster care with a huge increase in allowances of over 180%. It focuses on them in residential care, on the most vulnerable where they are homeless and, most particularly, it focuses on all children to ensure that their voice is heard and that they all get a better quality of life.
I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the budget introduced by the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy. The budget for 2001 provides a coherent framework for ensuring further economic growth on top of the record-breaking growth achieved by the economy in recent years. Economic growth shows no sign of diminishing from the remarkably strong rates recorded recently. The preliminary national accounts indicate that real gross domestic product, GDP, increased by 9.8% in 1999, while the most recent quarterly national accounts from the Central Statistics Office indicate that real GDP maintained its strong growth into the first quarter of 2000.
The most remarkable performance indicator of the strength of the economy is the dramatic fall in the unemployment rate throughout the year. The rate is estimated to be 3.7% for the final quarter of 2000, averaging 4% for the year. This is a 1.5 percentage point decline in one year or, even more spectacularly, a 7.5 percentage point fall since 1996. As the Economic and Social Research Institute – ESRI – points out in its recent quarterly economic commentary, "The jobless growth phenomenon of the early stages of the Celtic tiger has certainly been overcome".
The Minister for Finance is committed to promoting enhanced competition in the economy. To achieve this it is necessary that the conditions agreed by the social partners in the recently renegotiated Programme for Prosperity and Fairness – PPF – are adhered to. Obviously the renegotiation was required to compensate for the erosion in real incomes. The PPF also allows for the prospect of benchmarking pay terms in the public sector to reflect market forces. Given the rapid tightening of the labour market, the implementation of this process has the prospect of preserving a balance of skilled workers, both entrant and experienced, throughout the public sector.
The road haulage sector faces many challenges both internationally and at home. Stiff competition, traffic congestion and the development of a more professional structure all put pressure on the viability of the sector. We are all well aware that the road haulage industry, both in Ireland and throughout Europe, has been going through a traumatic period recently, brought about by a sustained rise in oil prices on world markets. In the budget the Minister for Finance has provided for relief on excise duty on diesel of 6p per litre, equivalent to the relief sought by the hauliers in their recent protests. Certain other budget measures will also have a positive effect on the sector. This response represents recognition of the challenge and pressures facing this important economic sector in the fiscal context.
Following the day of action organised by the Irish Road Haulage Association last September, a task force on road haulage issues was set up under the chairmanship of the Taoiseach's Department. In addition to representatives from the Irish Road Haulage Association, officials from my Department, the Department of Finance, the Revenue Commissioners, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs are represented on the task force. The task force was asked to consider and draw up a programme of action which recognises the need for a comprehensive and concerted effort by all interested parties to address the structural problems of the road haulage sector. The work of the task force is nearing completion and a package of measures has been formulated which addresses the concerns of the haulage industry. The programme of action is designed to underpin the importance of a professional and economically viable road haulage sector to the national economy and the part it plays in the successful implementation of the national development plan. Given the responsible way it addressed the serious issues which recently confronted it, no sector is better deserving of the recognition the Government has given at the highest level to the road haulage sector.
The Government's commitment to sustainable development of the energy sector is reflected in the Green Paper on Sustainable Energy which I published in September 1999. The policies and plans set out in the Green Paper were subsequently an integral part of the national development plan where a provision of £146 million has been secured to promote energy efficiency through information and education programmes; promote research and development in energy efficiency and CO2 abatement; promote alternative energy; and improve the energy efficiency of the pre-1980 housing stock and Government and local authority buildings. Intensified promotion of energy efficiency and the development of significant renewable energy electricity generation will be central to energy policy in the context of Ireland's commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.
The Irish Energy Centre will be the main conduit of the energy conservation and efficiency programmes. Under the Green Paper and the recently published National Climate Change Strategy, an increased role is envisaged for the IEC in implementing Government policy on sustainable and renewable energy. In accordance with the proposals in the Green Paper, the IEC will be established as an independent statutory body. The Government has given its sanction for the heads of a Bill to be formally drafted and I hope to have the legislation published in the early part of 2001. I am pleased to say that I have appointed an interim board to the centre under the chairmanship of Professor Frank Convery of the environmental studies unit of University College Dublin. I am satisfied that under the new board the centre will develop the necessary programmes and source adequate staff resources for the challenge ahead.
It is my intention to significantly increase the contribution of renewable sources of energy to meeting our energy needs and in the Green Paper I announced the establishment of a renewable energy strategy group to report on the obstacles to the further development of the renewable energy sector. The strategy group's report was published last July and the group presented a short and medium-term strategy and a number of recommendations. The report and subsequent responses received by me from players in the wind energy industry have been considered within my Department and I am pleased there is now sufficient consensus to move forward subject to the approval of the European Commission.
The promotion of renewable energy is an important aspect of the mandate of the Irish Energy Centre and I have set an increased target of 500mw of electricity generation by 2005. This generation of electricity through renewable sources is also an important element in our efforts to meet our commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.
The current economic success has given rise to challenges, and energy consumption is no exception. Future growth can only continue in an environment of new and innovative approaches to both generation and supply. Natural gas has become a major contributor to the energy needs of all sectors and is playing an increasingly greater role in the production of electricity. Under the 1998 EU gas directive a new market environment has been created.
I am a strong proponent of the liberalisation agenda for the natural gas market. Today we have a 75% opening of the gas market. My target is full market opening as soon as is practicable. To allow for the effective operation of the liberalised market I recognise the need for an independent regulator. In this regard, my Department is working on legislation that will allow for the expansion of the role of the independent Commission for Electricity Regulation to include regulation of the gas market. I hope to have this legislation in place by mid-2001.
I am also aware of the need to maintain security of supply. Ireland is serviced by two gas sup plies, Kinsale and the Ireland-UK interconnector. With the Kinsale supply declining and the interconnector near full capacity, a variety of supply options, including the Corrib gas field, have been proposed. The latest indications are that due to growing demand we will require new gas supply capacity by the winter of 2002 to avoid supply shortages. This is a year sooner than had been anticipated only a short while ago. The position will crystallise in the coming days when the ESRI completes its energy demand forecasts. It is of the utmost importance to our national competitiveness that our energy supply is not jeopardised. I have made it clear in the past that security of supply is of paramount importance and I will ensure that this remains the case when it comes to approving new supply infrastructure.
The changes in the natural gas market that we are currently witnessing will provide competition, greater consumer choice and greater security of supply. Ultimately I am confident that these changes will foster the growth of an energy market capable of supporting our continued economic success.
As the House is aware, this Government is firmly committed in its opposition to the continued operation and expansion of the nuclear industry, particularly the nuclear industry in the UK. Like its predecessors, it has rejected the nuclear power option because it believes the claimed benefits of nuclear power are significantly outweighed by the risks to public health, safety and the environment. Sellafield has long been a source of grave concern to successive Governments and the people. The Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland plays an important role in supporting the Government's ongoing campaign against Sellafield's operations.
This Government has recently approved the introduction of a radon remediation grant scheme. I am pleased to announce that my Department has been allocated £1.559 million in its Vote for 2001 for the introduction of such a scheme which will assist householders in undertaking radon remediation measures for their homes. The specific details of the scheme will be settled by a steering committee comprising my Department, the Departments of Finance and the Environment and Local Government and the RPII. I expect to announce details of the scheme in the new year. The scheme will be up and running in the second half of next year.
The Geological Survey of Ireland is an agency of my Department. It is the national geological agency and its work supports decision making in many sectors of national life, including resource management, environmental protection and hazard abatement. Its products are in the form of maps, reports and databases which document the geological features of Ireland's landscapes, as well as their mineral and groundwater potential. An important development in the work of the Geological Survey occurred last year when the Government directed that it manage a comprehensive survey of the Irish seabed area. The scale of this challenge will be appreciated when it is realised that the seabed covers an area which is ten times larger than our land area. I am pleased to report that surveying in the deeper waters has already commenced and almost 25% of these waters have now been covered. This work is being carried out by Irish contractors, Global Ocean Technologies Limited, who are world class leaders in seabed mapping. Surveying in shallower waters will commence in 2002 when the Marine Institute's new vessel is commissioned. It will be an important part of the survey to build national capacity in marine geological science and this joint venture between the Marine Institute and the Geological Survey will be critical in achieving this.
In an organisation like the Geological Survey, the management and distribution of the information it requires is its most important task. The Geological Survey is seeking to respond to the challenge of the information society by making its information available digitally and, eventually, on the Internet. This task is being undertaken with support from the Government's information society initiative and will make information more accessible to customers.
Finally turning to aviation matters, the Irish Aviation Authority has embarked on a major capital investment programme to cover the period 2000-05. The bulk of this expenditure will be spent on the construction and equipping of a new air traffic control centre at Shannon. In addition, the authority plans to upgrade the air traffic systems at Dublin and Cork airports. The shell of the new air traffic centre was completed earlier this year and equipping of the centre has recently commenced. The project will be completed by 2003. There is no financial risk to the state arising from this project, which will be funded by the Aviation Authority from profits and borrowings. The full cost will be recouped over time by the authority from airlines through user charges.
The construction and equipping of the new en-route air traffic control centre at Shannon is considered necessary by the authority to ensure it has a centre which can handle the projected growth in air traffic overlying Irish controlled airspace; be sufficiently flexible in modular terms to facilitate further expansion as the need arises; enable the next generation of equipment to be installed that will meet new system requirements and position the authority to expand Irish controlled airspace on the North Atlantic should the opportunity arise.
I consider this budget by far the fairest, the most caring and the most positively accepted and acclaimed budget in our State's history and I compliment the Minister.
The Minister of State said the budget was the fairest, the most caring and the most positively accepted and acclaimed budget. It was also the budget in which we saw the greatest give away of money. We are lucky to be living in times where a Minister has at his disposal such money to hand out. As he said himself and as other commentators have said, he is only giving back to the people what the State has taken from them. He is lucky to be in the position he is in. A couple of seats the other way and it would have been a Minister from this side of the House in his position. When the Minister and the Government took office in 1997, the country was doing extremely well. I am not saying the Rainbow Government, which was before my time here, was totally responsible. Successive Governments, groups and organisations in our society have worked for many years to bring us to the position in which we are today. We have a lot for which to be thankful and to celebrate.
The debate is not so much about how much money the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs can give old age pensioners now as against what was given in 1997. I thought the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs for whom I have great respect was a bit childish when he came into the House and said that they were giving so much to old age pensioners but that we only gave so much in 1997. We could all play that game; we could all go back over the years and say five years before that, the Fianna Fáil led Government only gave so much and so on. The debate has gone beyond that.
Let us look at where we are now and let us see how well we are managing what we have for the current needs. Any of us could dig into history and start to throw muck at the other side but I do not think that is positive. The debate should centre on whether the Minister and the Government are managing the success we have in the best way possible. Are there alternative ways in which it could be managed? Could it be done in a better way than is being done?
When one is giving away £4.5 billion plus, it would be hard to do something wrong and yet inflation is at 8% approximately. Why is that? It is not the same in the rest of Europe. People are saying it is the oil crisis, the price of oil. Is it solely the price of oil? Surely other Europeans are paying a similar price for oil. People are saying it is the euro differential. Surely other European countries have similar problems with the euro. I know we are tied to the UK in a different kind of way. Maybe there are other factors at play and the Government should look beyond the twin excuses it is putting forward – oil and the euro. Maybe other things are going on in our society.
I ask the Minister to use the resources at his disposal in the Department to examine what else might be causing this inflation. The Government is putting forward the mantra of oil and euro in the hope that is the only reason for inflation. I think there may be other issues there. It is up to the Government to examine and check if there are other issues which might be causing inflation.
One of the main areas in which inflation is impacting is on housing and the cost of housing. We all know from our constituents, media reports and so on that young people and, indeed, older people are finding it extraordinarily difficult to buy a home of their own so much so that tens of thousands of people are falling back on hard pressed local authority housing. Surely that is something we should try to avoid at all costs. On the Government's policy on housing, the three Bacon reports are not working as they should. They have taken the investor out of the market.
In other countries there is a strong private rented sector which is controlled, regulated and fair to all sides. Perhaps that is something we should look at here and begin to develop that culture. Many young people may not be willing to purchase their own homes as they may not want this terrible weight of debt around their necks for the rest of their lives. If people cannot afford to purchase their own homes perhaps we should look at developing a private rented sector that is fair to the person renting the property and to the person leasing the property. The person renting a home will know there are certain things which are the responsibility of the landlord and certain things which are his own responsibility, that the rent will be controlled up to a certain point which is fair to both sides, that evictions can take place with good reason and so on. It can be done and is done elsewhere. I do not know why it cannot be done here. It should be examined critically.
The lack of available accommodation also impacts on students. More could have been done in the budget for third-level students who must prove poverty in order to get a grant from the State. Those of us who have contact with students know the costs they have to incur. The grant is so small that it barely covers low rental costs and low rental accommodation is generally in a terrible condition. Students are forced out to work in order to be able to go to college and that can impact on their studies. Will the Government look at the issue of the third-level grant? The ceiling is too low and the maximum grant of £1,700 which students receive is also too low. How could anyone be expected to survive on that? To get the grant one's parents have to be poor and unable to afford to support the student.
The rent-a-room scheme is a good idea and, perhaps, the Minister could have done more with it. I hope he will expand it in future years. He could look at it in the Finance Bill to see whether it can be expanded. If an old age pensioner in receipt of the living alone allowance rents a room will he or she lose his or her allowance? Provision to ensure that does not happen could be made in the Finance Bill.
Also on the theme of housing, every evening when I leave Leinster House and walk to where I stay I pass five, six, seven or ten people lying on the sidewalk. If the Minister goes out tonight and walks around the city he will find young and old lying in doorways and on sidewalks covered up in blankets or pieces of cardboard. When a Minister is giving away £4.5 billion and some of our citizens are sleeping in such conditions there is something terribly wrong. I challenge the Government – the Minister of State, Deputy Hanafin said something about it earlier – to immediately set up a task force to ensure the homeless are looked after. While some work is being done in this area, more needs to be done. Social workers are needed on the street to find out why people are there and to help get them off the street. There is an outcry every time one of these people suffers a calamity, injury or death. The Minister should do something about this and it would not cost a huge amount.
In the course of various debates in recent days Deputies have tried to raise the issue of the teachers' dispute. This comes down to finance. We have been calling for a commission on teaching similar to the commission on nursing. While we have pressed the Minister, he has not responded to that suggestion. There is something fundamentally wrong in the education system when teachers are on strike at a time when the Minister for Finance is giving away £4.5 billion. There is something fundamentally wrong when a teachers' union is pushed into a corner and forced to press the nuclear button and is talking about boycotting and sabotaging examinations. That should not happen in the present economic climate. The Minister for Education and Science should invite all the teacher unions to a meeting and stay in there until it is sorted out. It has to be sorted out at some stage and the sooner the better.
One set of students is losing much tuition time while another set has continuous tuition. While both sets of students will face an examination at the end of the year there will be some inequality among students. Given that it is a competitive examination for points, it is imperative that the Minister moves on this. I do not want to see the Christmas recess come and go because whatever pressure is on him now to resolve it there will be no pressure on him during the Christmas period. He should work before the end of January to resolve this dispute.
A few days ago I had a 'phone call from a gentleman who is waiting for a serious operation. I tabled a parliamentary question to the Minister asking when he would have his operation. He had been waiting for some time. I was told he would have it in about two years. There is something fundamentally wrong with that. I had another 'phone call this evening from a constituent who is waiting for a back operation. He got a half promise that his operation would take place in June, July or October. Finally he was told he would get a bed next week. However, he was asked to telephone beforehand to ensure the bed would be available. He telephoned today and was told, "Sorry, the bed is not available. You have got to wait until after Christmas or maybe we will get you in just before Christmas". This is not good enough. This man is in severe pain.
While the Youth Work Bill is going through the Dáil I did not see any provision in the budget for youth activities. This is an area in which we need to invest heavily. Speaking on the Youth Work Bill the Minister said we depend a great deal on volunteers. I have news for the Minister. In the Ireland of the Celtic tiger and the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, the volunteer is a dying breed in society. People no longer have time. They are rushing from post to pillar. We read articles in newspapers about stress. Psychiatrists are giving out packs to deal with stress. If the Minister is serious about youth work he had better invest heavily in it and pay professional workers to go out on to the streets to work with young people at risk. The youth clubs and youth services need a large professional back-up service. Now is the time to provide it. A lot of money is being invested in mainstream education and the prison service. However, there is a gap in the middle, a twilight zone where young people are on the streets after school getting into all kinds of bother. Such young people need to be targeted and assisted.
Those are the people who are at risk. However, there are also the young people who are not at risk and of whom we are proud. A youth service has a serious developmental aspect. A properly resourced, funded and structured youth service acts as an informal education mechanism. We could not give Foróige, for example, enough money and there are many similar youth organisations in the country at the moment. They need properly trained and resourced youth workers to work in the community and assist our young people to grow socially.
The public house is often the only place our young people can go if they want to interact with each other. We need comfortable youth centres in most of our towns, rather than just a few chairs in an unattractive place that is draughty and cold. Young people will no longer go to such places but will go to the local pub instead. We need a properly resourced and funded youth service. I saw nothing in the budget to show the Government is serious or cares about that.
A fair amount of money was allocated to combat sports. However, there are a lot of other sports in our society that need money. They have to come forward with their begging bowls every year and make submissions for funding from the national lottery. Many of these organisations do a lot of good work. This was the time to recognise that work but we did not do it.
A woman told me today that it costs her £25 every time she brings her child to the doctor. We could have done more for children under five years and their parents. There are huge costs involved in taking children to the doctor. A woman told me that it cost £37 to deal with just one illness.
We talk about the stress, inflation and pressure in our society. The child care debate has gone on for some time. I will not repeat the arguments here because they are known. We need to do more work in that area.
We spoke earlier about farmers. I was disappointed with the budget provisions for farmers. The BSE crisis received passing mention. The Minister said today there are no plans to make moneys available to assist farmers who are suffering hugely because of the BSE crisis. I would like the Government to bring forward some plans in that area before Christmas. There are people on family farms who are extremely worried and are about to lose a lot of money. The Agri-Food 2010 report said the number of family farms will decrease dramatically over the next ten years. I hope that will not happen. It will be a choice that farmers will have to make, but I hope the Government will do everything in its power to ensure that does not happen.
When the Minister of State, Deputy Hanafin, stood up to speak tonight there were just two Deputies in the Chamber. There are a few more of us here now. I hope this institution will be reformed because many of our activities are archaic. It might take money to do that. I hope the suggestions put forward by my party, the Government, the Labour Party and others will be worked on soon. We need to do something to generate more interest in what we do here.
We need facilities such as swimming pools in our towns and cities. There is no public swimming pool in my area of east Cork. I have asked many times for that in this House over the past three and a half years but it has not been granted yet. Perhaps it will happen before Christmas.
We need to develop our rail service. I do not think one new length of rail track has been laid since the Government took office.
The Government could not have done too much wrong in the budget as it had so much money to give away. However, I wonder about the Government policy of importing employment and workers. Deputy Noonan recently questioned that. Ministers make announcements about the importation of 5,000, 3,000 or 2,000 jobs around the country. The Tánaiste then goes to the other end of the world to find workers to fill those jobs. I would like to hear the Government's overall thinking and policy in this area. As Deputy Noonan said, the budget seemed to have been designed by a committee. A fundamental question is whether we would be better off looking carefully at this stage at whether it is wise to import thousands of jobs and then having to bring in thousands of workers to do them. Is there a mismatch there? Perhaps I am missing something and am wrong in this regard.
They are not in Donegal.
I agree that Donegal needs jobs. However, if the Tánaiste brings in workers, the people in Donegal will not get those jobs. I welcome the news that Longford recently received a major employment boost. We need more initiatives like that in areas of the country which are unemployment black spots.
I wish to share my time with Deputies Upton and Penrose.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
In addressing the budget, I would like to set my remarks in the context of the framework the Minister for Finance announced on budget day. He set out four objectives, to secure continued prosperity, to improve the quality of life, to promote a fairer society and to reward work and enterprise through ongoing tax reform. We are entitled to regard those objectives as the benchmarks for what he set out to achieve.
I will not deal with the minutiae of the budget in terms of the various aspects of it listed in the Budget Statement which have been well documented over recent days. However, there are aspects of it which stand out and are worthy of comment. There has been reaction to the budget in terms of the state of our economy. Our economy is strong at present, and Members of all parties can claim a certain amount of credit for their contributions to it. At the same time, most people realise that if the engine is running well, it should be brought in for a service at regular intervals. I question whether we are taking the necessary precautions in relation to a strong economy.
We talk about the Celtic tiger, a term coined by an economist some years ago. However, the Celtic tiger bears a fair degree of analysis. I have said publicly on many occasions that I have worries and certain concerns about the Celtic tiger. That is not to take from its success, particularly in the latter half of the 1990s. However, we have become very dependent on American investment. I do not think one could argue against the person who says it is an American tiger located in Ireland. We have all gone out in the past 20 years, as did people before us, to bring in foreign investment. That has been very successful since the 1960s, although it has had its ups and downs throughout the country.
My personal experience of foreign investment, which was shared by Limerick, Longford and Tullamore and my home town, was the great Burlington investment in the 1970s. At one stage it employed almost 2,000 people in Tralee. It is long gone, but at the time, like the Fruit of the Loom industry in County Donegal, it looked like a very attractive industry.
On a day when the Irish-American relationship is manifest in events in this city today, it is ironic to note that 1,000 US companies are located in Ireland while approximately 100 of them are responsible for 50% of exports. Despite this, there is insufficient investment in research and development to sustain them and the Irish output from them. While IDA Ireland and SFADCo have been very successful, it must be asked if we have done enough to sustain their success. We will not if we do not have the investment in R&D. Under the science and technology programme a framework for this is being put in place. Despite this I have no sense from the Budget Statement by the Minister for Finance and subsequent contributions to the budget debate of what direction the Government wants the economy to take over the next four to five years. Ní hé lá na gaoithe lá na scolb.
It is very important to prepare for the next phase of the development of this society. It will involve research and development and brain power. We need reassurances from the Government that it is doing what is necessary to put in place the wherewithal to enable us continue with the phenomenal economic growth rates and with the improvements in society.
The question arises as to whether the economic growth has been shared in the creation of a fairer society. Independent judges would say we have not succeeded. Most parties in this House would say they have a political objective to promote a fairer society, yet if that is subject to critical analysis many in our society would say they have not shared the benefits of the Celtic tiger.
A number of industries are in crisis. There was a debate a couple of weeks ago and again this week on the crisis facing a very important sector. I do not wish to cut across my colleague, Deputy Penrose, my party's spokesperson on Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, but we have not yet faced up to the depth of the crisis Irish agriculture is facing. In the middle of 1997 the Minister, Deputy Walsh, then Opposition spokesman on Agriculture, asked to be given six weeks during which time he said he would have exports to Egypt resumed. It does not work like that. If we are to succeed in our exports we must set and observe standards. Exports are the linchpin of our agricultural communities.
The Government is in denial with regard to the agricultural sector while the leadership of the agricultural organisations are in denial about the levels of crisis facing the industry. I do not refer to the week to week fluctuations in the price of cattle and exports but the direction of Irish agriculture vis-à-vis what is happening in the rest of the world. It is time we looked at what is happening to world pricing in the US, New Zealand and Australia.
It is also time for the politicians and the leadership of the agricultural organisations to face up to the serious difficulties in the industry. We can fix things on a day to day, patchwork basis and the Minister can travel to Egypt with the aim or reopening the market, as he did after the EU Council of Ministers meeting last week. However, that is only a short-term solution. We must secure long-term markets and security for the industry. We must also make serious decisions in the foreseeable future about the nature of the agricultural community. We have not accepted, reacted or responded correctly to what is happening in world markets. It is vital to do so if we are to address the serious problems we face.
A litmus test of a fair society is the quality of the health services it provides. There have been good and bad years in relation to the health services and many debates have been held in the House on the quality of the services provided. Unfortunately, they continue to be open to the few but inaccessible to the bulk of the population. Any politician can say that spending has been doubled – that has happened over the past four or five years – but the level of spending does not matter if somebody cannot get access to the services.
The orthodontic service for school children has broken down.
There is no service.
It is not available. Every Member of this House, including I suspect Ministers, will have written to the Minister for Health and Children inquiring about access to this service. We tell people we are trying to secure a service, but with due respect to those who are trying to maintain it, the children will have outgrown the service before anything can be done for them. I ask the Minister for Finance if we are creating a fair society when there is no access to the health services.
The relatively new Minister for Health and Children – he was a successful Minister for Education and Science – has taken on a very difficult brief. I wish him well. However, ultimately, it is not a matter of whether we spend £3 billion, £4 billion or £5 billion but whether people can have access to hospitals and medical care so that they do not have to be on trolleys or waiting lists. That test will be put to the Minister.
More consultants are needed. For some reason we appear to have an incapacity to appoint new ones, but without qualified consultants we cannot provide the services required. The country has a proud record in education, yet not enough has been invested in this area to provide the necessary people to give the service required.
With regard to the continuation of the prosperity and the quality of life, the Government is fortunate that the economy is doing well, otherwise society would be in chaos. The teachers' strike is an example. Lest I am accused of being biased I should declare an interest because a member of my family is studying for the leaving certificate. It is unfair to the students who want to sit their leaving certificate examinations. Not only the teachers, but railway and airline workers are on strike on a daily basis.
The education system is at a crossroads. As a society we must decide if we want to pay our teachers an adequate amount of money to keep them in the profession. We all know what they would get paid in the private sector. All Members of this House are proud of the opportunities afforded them because of the education they received, made available to us through the sacrifice of others. Teaching is a public service in the same way as nursing. Teachers feel they are being left behind. It behoves the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Woods, a very experienced politician, to consult with the teaching profession and find a resolution to this conflict. In the interests of the examinations that are due to commence with the oral examinations next spring, it should be resolved before Christmas.
At times people say we spend too much on the public service. However, we will not keep the economy going unless we maintain quality in the education system. We have been proud of the education system over the years and we have invested much in it. We have obtained value for money. It must be asked why should people go into the teaching profession when they see the salaries they could make by working in the private sector. While it is fine to celebrate the success of the economy and what has happened in Dublin today, we should not confront students with what they may have to face over the coming months. I urge the Taoiseach to consult the teaching profession and the unions and find a way to solving their difficulty.
One only has to walk around the streets of Dublin to see how little effect a fairer society, continued prosperity and an improving quality of life have on so many people. It was brought home to us dramatically last week when an individual who was sleeping homeless rescued a bus driver from the River Liffey and then went back to sleep in his wet clothes in the location in which he had been previously. There is no reason any one individual in our society should be sleeping homeless in our towns and cities. That needs to be addressed. With the resources in our economy and the collective effort of the Government, the Department of Health and Children and the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs in particular, there is no reason any citizen should have to sleep rough at night-time. The numbers are manageable and facilities should be provided for them.
Our infrastructure is being addressed but not with the urgency it requires. The country and the city of Dublin are virtually at a standstill. This is a successful economy, but there is absolute frustration in terms of the movement within it. I am sure many Deputies who are members of county councils are aware of the planning situation. We do not have planners. When a local representative contacts the planning office it is virtually impossible to get a response on what might or might not happen with a planning application. One will get the answer from the computer that the application has been received and a decision will be made in two months' time. It is different from ten or 15 years ago when one was entitled to consult and would get a considered response. The infrastructure deficit of which we are all aware is approximately £15 billion to £20 billion. It is an urgent matter which must be addressed in the short-term rather than the long-term if we want to maintain our economy.
I want to speak about one aspect dramatically missing from the budget which the Government may have to come back to early in the new year. The Minister boasted in the budget that there are now 668,000 people out of the tax net. It is a phenomenal figure, but it works two ways. We are admitting there are 668,000 people in our working community who are not earning adequate salaries to be able to pay tax. That is a sad reflection on the Celtic tiger. In fairness to the Minister, who was carefully watched in 2000, which he had not been in 1999 when he made the individualisation mess, he was drawn between both parties in Government. He gave a little bit to a lot of people but he took a lot of it back in terms of PRSI, in a country which is trying to continually attract industry. However, he failed miserably by not setting out a vision for where this country will be in three to five years' time.
Dr. Upton
Last week's budget represented the biggest ever spending spree by any Minister for Finance, but the people on the lowest incomes continue to live in unacceptable poverty. It is clear from the analysis done all week by many people that those who earn the most are gaining the most, while those who earn the least are suffering the most and they have benefited only little from the budget.
There were some commendable measures in the budget, such as the medical card for people over 70 years of age and the increase in child benefit. However, more could have been done. The medical card provisions could have been made wider to include all pensioners. The Labour Party would recommend free primary care for all citizens. This is a viable option given our current economic circumstances.
The groups which fared the worst are those dependent on social welfare. An £8 increase for people on the basic rates is inadequate. In the past 12 months we have seen social welfare incomes totally eaten away by inflation. These increases neither compensate people for the effects of inflation nor protect them from possible inflation hikes in the coming year. At the very least, those on the basic social welfare rates, such as widows, carers and people with a disability, should have been given a minimum increase of approximately £11. The money was there to go well beyond this and that is why the Labour Party advocated a £14 increase in advance of the budget. The failure of the Government to increase the fuel allowance, for example, which has remained at the same level for the past ten years is disappointing.
The hype which preceded the budget in relation to increases in the rate of old age contributory pensions was unwarranted. There was enough money to do more for pensioners than the £10 across the board increase announced. The £10 scarcely compensates for the impact inflation has had on their incomes over the past year. Non-contributory pensions remain under £100 per week and the majority of people in receipt of the non-contributory rate are women. This compounds the growing problem of poverty among older women.
The budgetary provision to extend the fuel allowance for an additional three weeks of the year was abysmal. It beggars belief as to why the Government bothered to make changes to this allowance. Three weeks extra fuel allowance means only three days extra fuel. The level of the fuel allowance has remained static for ten years and it bears no relation to the current price of fuel. Those who most require the fuel allowance, the old and the sick, normally spend long periods indoors and they tend to live in poor quality accommodation which is difficult to heat. The additional fuel allowance would have made a huge difference to their quality of life.
The increase in child benefit is welcome. It means the objective of £100 per month for child benefit, which the Government signed up to in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, will now be met within the lifetime of the programme. Child benefit is an anti-poverty tool and it should remain that. As a nation with one of the worst rates of child poverty in both the EU and the OECD, it is not acceptable to distort the perks of child benefit in an effort to get the Government off the hook. Other issues relating to crèche facilities have not been addressed.
I welcome the statement this evening by the Minister of State at the Department of Public Enterprise, Deputy Jacob, about the radon remediation grant. I have been looking for this in an alternative life for a number of years and I am pleased to welcome it. However, it is long overdue and the amount being set aside is small.
Deputy Spring mentioned the health services and waiting lists. Any of us will be able to confirm that the orthodontic lists and the lists for speech and occupational therapists are appalling. Not a day goes by but each of us must address the need of many of our constituents for one or other of these services.
The quality of life aspects of the budget have been seriously neglected. Little has been done to improve the standard and quality of life for those most in need. The budget helps the rich to get richer. It has been clearly identified by independent analysts over the weekend that those at the lower end of the scale continue to do least well.
I welcome the opportunity to speak on the budget. However, it has missed an opportunity to tackle the inequalities in our society. The benchmark by which any budget should be evaluated or judged is whether we create a fair society and reach out to those who are excluded or marginalised or who are less well off.
It is no use introducing a budget which means someone like myself is £50 per week better off, while my father who worked for 41 years in Westmeath County Council for a miserable wage is £10 per week better off in gross terms. Inflation at 7% will eat into that and the small pension increase he got this year. He is £2.50 better off in net terms. Why should I be 25 times better off than my parents who contributed to this society? They are no different from other parents. We should not look after the well off. We should ensure they pay more so that people at the bottom of the ladder are looked after better.
What did the budget do for the carers in society who provide 24 hour care for their fathers, mothers and other relatives? It is important to look after people in their own homes rather than put them into institutional care. Carers are with them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Minister had a glorious opportunity to reach out to those people. However, he insulted them. He increased the income disregard to £250 for a married couple and £150 for a single person. It was a pathetic gesture which means that approximately 5,000 people will be added to the 15,000 already receiving the carer's allowance. Some 20,000 people will be looked after following this budget, even though the Minister had billions of pounds to spend. There are 100,000 people caring for relatives in their own homes with very little respite care. These people were insulted and given a Harvey Smith gesture. The allowance works out at a miserable 65p per hour for the 20,000 people who receive it, that is, one-eighth of the minimum wage. How can this budget be trumpeted as fair?
Caring is a universal experience. We have all been cared for and will be carers at some point. I am not ashamed to champion the cause of these people. I am aware from family experience of the care they provide. This measure is an indictment of the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs at a time when the Government was looking for ways in which to spend money. Those who are most deserving were deserted in the budget. What about personal assistants in the centres for independent living such as Kinnegad? They tried to get FÁS workers but they needed full-time personal assistants at a cost of approximately £10,000. The centre for independent living made a communal budget submission seeking approximately £10,000 for personal assistants. They did not get a penny. These people have been forgotten. Money should be provided for people who are marginalised and work hard for society.
What about housing? There are approximately 8,000 homeless people sleeping on the streets tonight and we feel smug and happy. Is that not a sad indictment of the well trumpeted Celtic tiger and budget surpluses. If there is money in the fund, we should use it to introduce a crash programme. Deputy Reynolds said the other night that more could have been done. I am pleased that a fellow midlander knows exactly what it is like. We should be ashamed that people are lying curled up in blankets on the streets of our cities and towns. There are approximately 50,000 people on the housing waiting list while there has been a start up of just 3,500 or 4,000 houses. How many of these include social housing units? The figure of 50,000 will increase because access to private housing is now beyond the reach of couples on the average industrial wage. There are 400 houses in County Westmeath which do not have water or sewerage facilities. Money should be provided for local authorities to look after these people. Many are elderly people living in rural areas who believe they are forgotten. They have been forgotten in the rush for self-congratulations on the Celtic tiger which is a myth to most people.
What about single income families who are totally unhappy and feel discriminated against? The Minister, Deputy McCreevy, did not mention individualisation in this year's budget because he could not do so. An increase in the income tax exemption limit of £1,000 is discriminatory. Many people took note of this and, even though this fact was concealed in the budget, people are not fools. I recently spoke to a mother of two children who is working in the home. Her husband is earning approximately £30,000 and they pay £100 a week rent. This woman, whose children are aged one and a half and three and a half, was pleased about the increase in child benefit but not in relation to child care. Child benefit is a measure to tackle child poverty but child care is a separate issue. The budget clearly discriminated against these people. Given that this family must pay £100 per week rent, this woman will not be able to save for a mortgage.
CORI's summary of the budget coincides with my analysis. The poorest people in society were betrayed because the budget favours the better off and increases the divisions in society. The gap between the rich and the poor will be substantially widened as a result of the budget, which is a scandal. We must look after our young people. The Minister did nothing in the budget for third level education grants. Issues are being fobbed off to committees. The Minister knows what needs to be done. Students who must live on less than £40 per week are paying £60 and £70 rent. Income eligibility limits must be increased to a decent level of approximately £30,000, followed by a graduated relief. That measure would increase the grant for many people.
Free primary care and access to the health service is crucial for all citizens. A member of the well off brigade can produce a cheque book and within three days have hip or cardiac surgery carried out. What about the people I know with medical cards who are on hospital waiting lists for two and a half or three years and consultants tell them they may have to wait for a further six months, while those with the wherewithal can have an operation carried out within 72 hours? This is an absolute scandal at a time of plenty.
I wish to share my time with Deputies Keaveney and Brady.
The wonderful thing about economic theories is that there are so many different ones from which to choose. It has been observed before that if all the economists in the world were laid end to end, they would not even reach a conclusion. While in theory the Minister for Finance has an infinite variety of options open to him, in practice he is constrained by a myriad of factors, including many political, social and practical difficulties which commentators can simply ignore. In truth, every budget represents a pragmatic compromise between a variety of conflicting objectives. In debating the merits of the budget, the question before the House is, did the Minister get the compromise right? We are most emphatically not required to scrutinise the budget to judge its merits by reference to some unattainable ideal standard of economic theory. The Minister for Finance is in the business of directing the economy, he is not in the business of writing a thesis.
I am labouring this point for a purpose. The single most fatuous criticism to be levelled at the budget is that it is inflationary. The cornerstone of the Government's drive to prevent inflation spiralling out of control is the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. It is widely accepted that the consensus between the social partners, reflected in the series of national agreements culminating in the PPF, lies at the root of our economic prosperity. Moreover, it is also accepted that the maintenance of national consensus and the protection of the PPF should remain national priorities. Without the moderation and balance provided by the PPF, the treadmill of rising wages chasing rising prices could speed rapidly out of control.
The budget is a key element in the compromise necessary to keep the PPF alive. This budget, taken as a package, is the price that a sensible Government has quite rightly paid to protect the medium and long-term prosperity of the economy. This budget is the only way to retain control of a situation where the PPF was threatened by an overheating economy. Viewed from the ivory tower, the budget may not be perfect. Viewed from the standpoint of plain common sense, the integrated package of measures in the budget looks a whole lot better than any of the alternatives and has been widely accepted by the public, based on the most positive response to it. Nothing is impossible for the man who does not have to do it himself. My colleague, the Minister for Finance, has been the beneficiary of a bizarre cocktail of conflicting advice from the hurlers on the ditch. Matters are always different when one is obliged to play on the field.
I have always believed that the political business of the House should be tempered by a measure of compassion. On that basis, I record my sympathy for the dilemma facing the Deputies opposite as they struggle to find some fault with the budget. The spectre of inflation had to be dug up and paraded around to see if it could raise a scare. However, a budget which protects the PPF has at its core the most practical response to inflation available.
What about the teachers and the nurses?
Some people try to fabricate a charge of parsimony: we did not do enough for this group or that group. However, we have intro duced the most progressive and generous package of supports for families and children in the history of the State.
More laughably, there has even an attempt to charge the Government with throwing money at the health service. I am tempted to reply "We are guilty as charged – and proud to be so". As the Minister for Health and Children has already made clear, we are targeting resources at priority areas. Are the Deputies opposite living in some parallel universe where cutbacks are the solution to waiting lists? We do not deny the existence of those waiting lists, nor do we deny that the length of time people must wait for operations is unacceptable. An extraordinary amount of capital is being invested in developing a number of hospitals so that additional beds can be provided.
There are 2,500 elderly people awaiting cataract operations.
It is the height of hypocrisy on the part of the Opposition to pretend that this problem arose overnight.
What about those 2,500 people?
The Deputy should restrain himself.
More than 20,000 more procedures were carried out this year as compared to last year. The same also applied in respect of the previous year.
There are 32,000 people on waiting lists.
The number of procedures is constantly increasing and I assure the Deputy that we will reduce the waiting lists further.
As everyone in Ireland knows, wealthy countries must grapple with problems which are very different to the challenges we faced until quite recently. As the Minister for Finance rose to speak on budget day, he faced an unenviable tangle of complex and difficult issues. The budget he presented treads a careful path between rewarding work—
The rich.
—and protecting the vulnerable, funding essential development and maintaining balance in the public finances and, most importantly, protecting the Partnership for Prosperity against the threat of inflation.
With regard to taxation, a most significant and generous package of increases has been introduced. A total of 638,000 people have been completely removed from the tax net and we are fast approaching a time when people on the minimum wage will have no tax liabilities. Of the total of 27 percentage points taken off the higher and marginal rates of tax in recent years, the rainbow Government can claim responsibility for removing one percentage point. What a paltry record.
The Minister's party has been in Government on many more occasions than mine.
Dramatic improvements in the rate of old age pensions have again been put in place. In addition, the date of payment of these increases has been brought forward.
The Government should go to the country and we will test its mettle.
It was extraordinary to listen to Deputy Penrose, for whom I have the greatest respect, discount the £10 increase in the old age pension.
Inflation is running at 8%.
Deputy Penrose passed through the lobbies several years ago and supported an increase of £1.75 in the old age pension.
Inflation is running at 8%.
Order, please.
It is fine for the Minister who is able to stay at fine hotels and eat caviar. What about poor people?
The Deputy should cease interrupting.
I am trying to fight on behalf of the poor, Ceann Comhairle.
I wish to deal with a number of points raised by Deputies Stanton and Spring. Deputy Stanton is concerned that we might be placing too much emphasis on encouraging people who emigrated to other countries to return here and take up positions in employment. For the record, 48,000 people who were living and working outside Ireland two years ago are now living and working here. For far too long this country felt the effects of emigration and rampant unemployment. However, things have changed dramatically and we now face a different challenge. The Government is taking positive steps to maintain economic growth and increase employment by encouraging those who were forced to leave the country at a time of economic hardship to return here to take up gainful employment. We will continue to pursue that policy.
With regard to investment in research and development, everyone accepts that we would like to see multinational companies anchor a greater proportion of their research in Ireland. However, we have to develop further interest in this area and we will do so through investment in research in technology in our universities, in technological institutes and in the science and technology programme. During the period covered by the national development plan, £640 million will be invested in this area. In addition, we must attract our best and brightest and encourage them to engage in these activities. This will create a root system to anchor the operations of increasing numbers of multinational companies in Ireland in the future. We must also encourage investment in indigenous industries.
The Minister for Finance and the Government are to be congratulated on a budget which has more than fulfilled the Government's commitment to the programme it announced on taking office in June 1997. The comprehensive nature, balance and fairness evident in the budget will ensure that its measures will continue to contribute to the economic success and well-being of all our citizens.
The programme set out by the Government has a number of key economic and budgetary objectives: to manage our economy; to secure our continued prosperity as a nation; to improve our quality of life in a variety of ways; to promote a fairer society; and to effect ongoing tax reform through removing those on low incomes from the tax net. Reducing the tax burden, particularly for those on middle incomes, and increasing the incentive to work will help to reduce inflationary pressures.
I have a specific interest in a number of areas, such as agriculture, the environment, taxation and child care, and I will comment on each. I come from County Meath, which has a strong farming tradition heavily concentrated in beef production. I am extremely concerned about the livelihoods of so many of my constituents who are beef producers. It seems that we had only resolved the farm gate price for beef issue with the meat plants—
I will have to obtain a copy of the Deputy's speech. Who wrote it?
—which meant that farmers were recovering some measure of confidence and looking forward with the not unreasonable expectation of prosperity to come, when another foreign generated BSE crisis caused another market collapse through the erosion and withdrawal of consumer confidence, at home and abroad, in beef quality and safety.
With regard to the BSE crisis and matters pertaining to its being debated elsewhere, I firmly hope the Minister and his Cabinet colleagues will endeavour to take all necessary measures to ensure the future of our beef trade in terms of domestic consumption, processing and exports, which form a huge percentage of our overall agricultural exports. I welcome the Minister's introduction of incentives to increase farm investment. Farmers are being treated no less favourably than other business sectors in respect of this issue, particularly in terms of the increase in the annual capital allowance for investment in plant and machinery from 15% to 20%.
The removal of the general 25% stock relief and the special 100% stock relief for certain trained young farmers for a further two years from next April will be generally welcomed by the farming community. The period allowed for re-investment of roll-over relief for capital gains tax purposes is being extended where farmland is subject to compulsory purchase for road building. This is important because the national development plan provides for vastly increased expenditure in respect of the upgrading of roads.
In another way the Government is also attempting to secure the future of a modern farm industry through the provision of additional funding for the payment of a training allowance of £150 per week by Teagasc to farm apprentices and second year agricultural students while on block release courses. It sees farming as an ongoing and vital component of Irish life and these measures are further testimony of its continued commitment to the sector.
Debate adjourned.