Vol. 557 No. 1
I move:
That Dáil Éireann resolves that it no longer has confidence in the Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy T.D. in view of the incompetent manner in which the public finances have been managed over an extended period.
With your permission I propose to share time with Deputies Allen, Olivia Mitchell and Ring.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
The Minister for Finance must go at this point because for two years in a row he has allowed spending to grow at ten times the rate at which revenue came in. That is an incredible achievement. In just 22 months spending has grown by almost 47%. This reckless spending binge has burnt out the surplus which workers created. A surplus of €4.8 billion which was available in 2000 has been burnt out in a reckless pursuit of electoral gain. These reserves which had been built up by the workforce were important because they would cushion the inevitable downturn. Now as we endure a downturn they are gone. The consequences of this extraordinary binge are more job losses in vulnerable industries as a direct result of the failure of the Minister for Finance to control public spending. Already in the past 12 months redundancies are up 46%. Jobs are being lost at the rate of 500 per week while the Minister has allowed public finances to go recklessly off the rails and will add to that sorry toll as we approach Christmas and beyond.
The origins of this spending spree go back to the beginning of 2001. With their eyes firmly on the election, Operation Bertie was rolled out, with money being offered as the solution to everything. More was to be spent on everything. It was all about glad-handing the public, finding photo opportunities and taking part in grand openings. It was promised that largesse would be dished out to sports clubs and sports people. It did not matter what the occasion was once there was a good opportunity for photographs. People were recruited to the public service at a rate of 1,000 per month. This was an incredible rate of recruitment into the unreformed same old public service and bureaucracy that was not delivering value. A Minister who complained about the failures of that bureaucracy to deliver value, more than any other Minister in the history of the State, recklessly spent money we did not have. The high point of that came with Stadium Ireland, the grand project which was to cost £283 million. It was soon clear that neither costs nor benefits had been assessed and once it came under independent scrutiny the whole thing collapsed like a house of cards.
We have a vote of no confidence in the Minister for Finance as it was his duty, above all others, to control public spending, to heed the warning signs and to ensure corrective action was taken. The Minister built his political reputation on his dissent when Mr. Haughey in the early 1980s was pursuing a similar tactic of spending recklessly. His courage went when it was demanded and when the tables were turned when he sat at the Cabinet table. The scale of what the Minister has done makes the budgets of Mr. Haughey in the 1980s seem like child's play by comparison. Real spending was at 7%, which was reckless, but the Minister has allowed real spending grow at the rate of 35% in two years, which is an extraordinary level. This was the Minister who prided himself on prudence in public management. His courage completely failed him. Who will suffer as a result of this failure of courage? It will not be the Minister, Deputy McCreevy, and his colleagues in Cabinet but the ordinary people who have already witnessed cutbacks and increased charges for VHI, ESB and attendance at out-patient and casualty departments. For those who want to put a child through college there has been a 70% increase in fees.
Beside the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, is the Minister for prices who said she would hold prices during the euro changeover and would make sure the public was not ripped off. Far from holding down prices the Ministers enthusiastically got in on the act. It was they who led the charges as soon as the election was over to hike up prices on every Government service for which they could charge extra. It is not sur prising that people are cynical, angry and frustrated at what is happening.
The Minister's epitaph will be "Get out and party". The spending spree undertaken to back up their well-woven slogan, "A lot done, more to do", is the legacy of the Minister. The public quickly discovered that this slogan was like buying a car with the mileage clock turned back. When the election was over they discovered the reality. They opened up the bonnet and it was burning oil and the timing belt was gone. All these extra cutbacks which suddenly emerged from nowhere had to be imposed.
No doubt the Minister will say the economic downturn has caused all these difficulties and that spending has increased by 47% because the economy has been sluggish. I have never heard anything so ridiculous in my life. Indeed, the Minister's budget says what would happen if economic growth faltered by 1%. He said it would affect the budget only marginally, by 0.5% in borrowing. However, in the past two years spending has increased three fold, more than anything that could be explained by an economic downturn. Economic downturn is not the explanation of what happened, rather it is a matter of Ministers spending recklessly and beyond what the Dáil approved for them at budget time, with the Minister for Finance presiding over a buckaneering approach to tax and tax manoeuvres that resulted in less than a quarter of the revenue he said would materialise in both years. That is an extraordinary performance. The greatest crime is that the Minister will not accept responsibility. He must face up to his direct responsibility. It was he, despite being Minister for Finance, who allowed his party's political agenda to take priority over the duties of the office which he held. He did nothing to rectify trends until it was far too late. He tolerated Ministers spending far beyond what had been approved by the Dáil. It was he who dispensed with advisers on the basis he did not need them and could proceed on his own hunches. He pursued his hunches with our money and we will have to pay the consequences. Those who asked questions were contemptuously swept aside. Days before the election even the then leader of the Opposition, Deputy Noonan, had this contemptuous letter addressed to him, saying everything in the garden was rosy. It was wrong when it was written and it is wrong now.
Subterfuge was the order of the day throughout the 2002 budget cycle. The Minister produced Estimates showing spending up 8%, which is now running at 19.6%. It was a journalist who highlighted the subterfuge involved in the Estimates at that time. They got past the first stage. When budget day arrived there was a huge emerging deficit of €2.5 billion and there would have to be borrowing. However, that was not the thing to announce in an election year. Instead they dipped into every fund conceivable. They raided the social insurance fund to the tune of €635 million, took €610 million from the euro changeover, brought forward corporation tax and self- employed tax to gain another €700 million and the capital services redemption account was conveniently used to find another €500 million. Miraculously the Minister was free and the huge yawning deficit was gone. He could face the electorate saying he never allowed borrowing and that he made sure every budget he introduced was in credit. It was the greatest phoney action that could be conceived.
The returns for the first quarter showed that income and corporation tax were already €250 million off target and that spending was running way ahead of target. EUROSTAT had ruled out the €610 million that was to paper over the budget. All this was concealed. There was no admission that things were going wrong. The mask had to be kept up because the election was looming.
In April things were even worse. Spending in that month alone was up by 34%. Nothing was uttered. There was deathly silence. Any explanation was enough to paper over what was happening. No hard questions were asked by the Minister for Finance on whom we relied to see that public money was properly used.
Then came the famous letter of 13 May. The Minister solemnly announced that no significant overruns were projected and that no cutbacks whatsoever were being planned, secretly or otherwise. He went on to say that the latest tax returns confirmed the return to growth and that the Government's budgetary projections remained the same as published. However, each month that passed produced more and more evidence of the extent to which this pre-election statement totally misrepresented the true state of affairs. While these words were being uttered memoranda were being produced in the Department of Finance calling for spending to be reined in. Within weeks of the budget the Minister has already on the table €300 million in spending cuts. He let the cat out of the bag that the €300 million shortfall in tax, which was already clear in the first quarter, was admitted to after the election was over. These were the consequences people faced.
Even today we are assured by the Minister that spending will come in on target. That may happen but I am sure it will be done with smoke and mirrors. One thing is sure, the consequences of coming in on target, a fall in the nominal value of current spending in the last two months of this year, compared to the last two months of last year of 6%, will be dire. We will not see a 27% cut in the last two months in spending on health, a 23% cut in spending on the environment, an 11% cut in spending on justice or an 8% cut in spending on education. The Minister will not bring his budget in on target by making sure spending programmes stay within budget. There will be more funny money. Payments under benchmarking, which he budgeted for, will not be made. Reserves and balances will be brought forward and things will look much better than the reality, but that will not convince anyone. Three out of four people believe the Minister misrepresented the facts and misled them to win the election. That is the truth of the matter. The Minister's legacy is runaway spending and crumbling revenue resources.
The Government is now asking the people to believe the Minister can undo the damage he created, that he will ensure that the weak and vulnerable sections of our community will not carry the can in the forthcoming retrenchment, that extra burdens will be fairly shared and that ordinary workers will not have to bear the loss. The Government expects us to believe that the Minister will sensitively separate important social needs from the shrill demands of the loudest and the greediest. I have no confidence he will do so. Nothing in his record suggests that he is the man to do that. It is the weak and the voiceless who have been singled out for the cutbacks announced since the election. It is hard-pressed families that have borne the brunt of the extra charges brought about since the election. It is ordinary workers who are being asked to accept a pay freeze while nothing is done about unscrupulous profiteering. The Minister has celebrated the unfettered pursuit of profit, of rugged individualism, regardless of social price. That is the legacy he has left. We do not believe he will deal sensitively with the difficult problems ahead. He has allowed the systems for ensuring value for money in public spending to grind to a halt and rust.
We now face a budget as a result of which the public will suffer the hangover for the Government's binge. We already see what will happen in the forthcoming budget. It will not be the big bureaucracies, advisers, spin doctors of the Government that will bear the consequences. There will not be serious reform to deliver value for money. It will be the small people who will be asked to pay again. This is a Government which has honed the skill of telling the public what it wants to hear. Now is the time for it to listen to its tracking polls and focus groups. Three out of four people believe that the Minister for Finance conned the public to win the election. He has lost the confidence of the people. He has no credibility in asking them to make sacrifices. He must go.
As a result of the negligence of the Government, the weakest in our society are suffering the most. Ireland is currently in the grip of a serious housing crisis that began during the reign of the Celtic tiger and that the Government has failed to tackle in any way. This crisis has changed our society and the way we live. Only a few years ago home ownership was something to which most people could aspire, but that is no longer the case. In the not too distant past people in full-time employment could purchase a home. However, a few years ago, house prices began to soar beyond their means because of rampant and uncontrolled price increases. It was also difficult to rent in the private sector because of escalating rental costs brought about by the Government's decision to embrace and implement the first Bacon report. How could people purchase a home when prices were out of control? Nationwide house prices have risen by a staggering 79% since 1997, with the average price of a new house now standing at over €189,000.
Many of the people caught by these rampant increases had nowhere else to go except to the local authority, swelling waiting lists that were in many cases almost out of control. In Cork, for example, waiting lists have gone from 2,000 to 4,000 in the few short years during which this Government has been in office. In our capital a very serious situation has developed. A recent study showed that only 10,000 new houses were being built privately each year although 15,000 or 20,000 units are needed yearly in the Dublin region. This helps to make house prices in Dublin much higher than in cities of comparable size in the European Union. Throughout all this, the Government has allowed the local authority house building programme to flounder so that it can no longer meet demand. Thousands of people, young and old, in this the 21st century are living under 19th century conditions. Thousands are living in hovels that are unregistered with local authorities and the local authorities do not have the resources to monitor and control these slums. The Minister, by refusing to answer questions in this House about enforcement, is effectively washing his hands of this appalling situation. Even with the recent highlighting of cases of students living in primitive conditions, the Minister would not come into the House and answer questions about enforcement of building regulations.
This position is made even worse by the failure of the local authority house maintenance programme which is highly ineffective. Once again, the Government will not act. Throughout Ireland, in the middle of the most serious housing crisis ever in our history, there are hundreds of millions of pounds worth of houses lying vacant at any one time. In one local authority I estimate that £35 million worth of housing is lying idle. Individual houses lie empty for years because of the disastrous house maintenance programme, and these are houses that could be used by people on waiting lists.
This scandalous situation is allowed to go on because of the Minister's failure to act. The reduced house construction programme, coupled with the very ineffective house maintenance programme, has brought about a bleak and hopeless scenario for the estimated 100,000 families on waiting lists. This scandalous situation is the result of gross mismanagement and negligence at the highest level of Government, involving the Departments of Finance and the Environment and Local Government. The result of this negligence is that the weakest in our society are suffering most.
If one sympathises with the plight of young people hoping to get housing, we must also remember that the Government has failed in its responsibilities to the elderly. The essential repairs for the elderly scheme and related schemes which are designed to help elderly persons in substandard conditions have run out of money. In one health board area more than 1,000 elderly people have been told that although they are worthy of help they will have to wait two or three years for their essential repairs to be carried out because there is no funding. Many of those people are in their 80s and may be dead by the time their turn arrives. The reality of Ireland today is a harsh one brought about by this incompetent Government. It is a fact of life with which many people live, and one not often highlighted in the media and conveniently forgotten by Ministers.
In recent weeks, I have been inundated with calls from the 227 Fine Gael councillors throughout the country. They are worried about the financial plight of their councils going into next year's estimates. Many local authorities are deeply in debt and are still in the dark regarding what funding will be made available to them next year. They are turning to new forms of taxation to raise revenue. For example, a local authority on the east coast slapped a €35,000 development charge on a person building a house and a €300,000 development charge on a person building a commercial garage. These charges are an example of a new layer of taxation imposed on people because of inadequate funding and structures. The coming year will be one of crisis for local authorities and they will be forced to impose further local charges which will essentially be a new form of taxation.
In addition to these problems, the Ministers for Finance and Transport are jeopardising the future of the country by failing to plan for the full financial costs of the national development plan. There are many examples of projects at risk. Some 14 major road projects have been dropped so far including the Ennis bypass, the Carrickmacross bypass, the Sligo inner relief road, the Castleisland-Abbeyfeale route and the Enniscorthy-Clonroche route. Even the five major inter-urban routes are now running at least two years behind schedule with these roads not expected to reach completion until 2008 at the earliest.
As Dublin city grinds to a halt, further cutbacks in the national development plan have had a negative effect on the development of the rail sector. We are told that, to date, no orders have been placed for the delivery of the 67 new inner-city rail carriages. It seems that the earliest date for the delivery of these carriages is now 2005. Only 10% of the budget for the development of suburban rail and park and ride facilities has been spent. The funding for integrated ticketing has been shelved until at least 2006. On top of this, Luas is running at least six months behind schedule.
The only successful element of the national development plan investment has been the upgrading of the rail network. However, the Minister for Finance will not provide the funding to utilise that network and improve the service. The funding of regional airports has been long-fingered at a time when many airports are struggling to survive and little industrial development is being achieved close to them. There is a litany of failure, negligence and indifference from the Government and it will have to pay the price.
It gives me no pleasure to speak in this debate. One year ago, the country was awash with money. The Minister told us he could buy his way out of any problem and I remember the backbenchers applauding him through the budget debate. I want to see them applauding him in a fortnight's time. We will see then what applause there will be on the backbenches.
You told us in May, Minister, that there would be no cutbacks.
The Deputy should address his remarks through the Chair.
The Deputy has at least livened up the debate. He should not be stopped.
It will be my pleasure to put my remarks through the Chair but I hope they go to the Minister for Finance. I am glad the Taoiseach is in the House as he is another who saw no problems at the beginning of the year. The public was told by the Minister for Finance, the Taoiseach and every Fianna Fail and Progressive Democrats member in the country that there would be no cutbacks, secret or otherwise. One month after the general election, the Government re-evaluated the situation, looked at the books from the Department of Finance and the Minister found he had a problem. Even then, he could not admit that to the public.
When the Minister found there was a problem, he targeted children, mothers and the unemployed. Inflation has been rising on a day-to-day basis over the past 12 months and increases in social welfare have been washed away. Food prices have gone up by the hour while the Minister and his Government have done nothing.
The Minister also targeted a poor woman who contacted me this morning in County Mayo. She was receiving nine hours of home help and then got a phone call this morning—
Why did the lady not contact Deputy Kenny?
Deputy Harney told us that she was to be the watchdog of Fianna Fáil. If she is the watchdog, she is a poor one. She must not have had her glasses on.
The woman told me that she was receiving nine hours of home help. An official from the health board phoned her this morning to say that was to be reduced to six hours and that nobody would be available on bank holidays, holidays or Sundays. Do the Minister for Finance, the Taoiseach and the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment think that is wonderful? Can the Government be allowed to do this to the poor in society? The Western Health Board and every other health board are targeting the weak. Will the Government give extra funding to the Western Health Board to prevent that poor lady having to go to bed when it gets dark at 5 p.m.? She does not get up until the next day at daylight. Do the Taoiseach and the Ministers for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Finance think it is right that poor people must go to bed when it gets dark because they are afraid and there are no services for them?
The carer's allowance is probably the greatest scandal. I listen to Government backbenchers who are great for writing articles in newspapers telling the Government how badly it is doing its job yet come to the House every week and go through the lobbies to vote with the Government. In his Budget Statement, the Minister told us that there would be 3,400 more carers added to the 22,500 carers paid for by the State. He said there would be extra carers because the guidelines would be lifted and made easier. That did not happen and only 1,400 came within the guidelines. There are 100,000 carers looking after elderly people and, when they apply for carer's allowance, they are asked to supply savings books and every document they possess to the social welfare office. The Department of Social and Family Affairs does all in its power to ensure that these people do not get carer's allowance despite the fortune saved by the State due to their care for elderly people in the home.
If elderly people cannot be looked after at home, they are put in nursing homes and must look for subvention. If an old person goes into a home, his or her house is taken away and, even if no income is being made from the house, income is calculated for it. Old people are being told that the next time they leave their homes will be in a coffin. Do you, a Cheann Comhairle, think that is right? If you wish, I invite you to ask the Government if it thinks it right that an old person's house is calculated as income when he or she goes into a nursing home. Old people should have some hope that they will come out of nursing homes and will live in society again. Some go to homes for the winter months while some go for respite on the basis that they are not able to look after themselves. That is an attack on the elderly, the poor and the weak, and it should not happen.
Increasing numbers are being taken off medical cards and that is a crazy situation. When people on disability benefit get slight benefit increases their medical cards are withdrawn because of the guidelines. That should not happen and would not happen in a society that cared about the sick and weak.
I will pose three questions to the Minister about the agricultural sector. I hope he or someone from his Department responds either tonight or tomorrow. I am told reliably that he is seeking a €12 million cut in the Teagasc budget, €2 mill ion in that of Bord Bia and €500,000 in that of Bord Glais. We are trying to sell beef and to keep the farming community and rural Ireland together, but the Minister targets the agricultural sector. This evening a man took responsibility for his actions, Brendon Menton of the FAI, who accepted that he did not do his job properly. The Taoiseach is a great sportsman and he, the Minister and the Tánaiste should do as Mr. Menton did tonight. They made a mess of the country and the economy and they should do the honourable thing. The three musketeers ought to resign as they have more to answer for than Mr. Menton. They destroyed the country and put people out of it.
What did the Deputy's party do in the 1980s?
There was a time when people wanted to come here.
It taxed children's shoes. His party wanted to tax children.
Deputy Brady will get his opportunity.
There are 500 people a week losing jobs.
I will finish on this note.
There is the man who lost Fine Gael a seat in Mayo.
We may have taxed children but if the Government has its way there will be no children left as parents will not be able to afford them. That is what Deputy Brady wants. His party does not want anyone to live here. In the past five years, the rich have got richer and the poor, poorer. Middle-class people have been looked after by Fianna Fáil.
I am reluctant to intervene, but the Deputy's time has concluded.
The Ceann Comhairle should let me finish. The Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Finance should do the honourable thing, like Brendan Menton, and resign. They should hand over government to this side of the House which will be able to run it more effectively.
The Deputy cost his party a seat in Mayo.
The Deputy lost his job. He should be prepared to take it as well as give it.
It is impossible to have confidence in a Minister for Finance who allowed the Minister for Health and Children to increase public spending on health by 137% with no requirement that he achieve a commensurate improve ment in the health service. It is not that we criticise the spending of the money, but it was not spent wisely. Value for money in the health service is expressed in better patient care and service, which we surely did not get. Not alone was there no attempt to achieve value for the additional money spent, but there was no attempt to tackle the fundamental restructuring so that maximum value could be achieved from the core budgets, despite the fact that the need for it was clearly signalled by virtually everyone of the many dozens of reports commissioned by the Minister for Health and Children and unquestioningly paid for by the Minister for Finance. Every time it seemed the Minister was about to make a decision, he commissioned yet another report.
One matter he might have paid attention to was the value for money audit, which was received 18 months ago and has sat on a shelf since with not one single recommendation implemented. It was a damning indictment of the health service, clearly and unequivocally stating that the structures, financial systems, control procedures and data bases were totally incapable of monitoring "the efficiency and effectiveness of the health service". This did not seem to matter to the Minister for Health and Children who took the Minister for Finance seriously when he said that it was party time. On the scantiest of information, he proceeded to employ thousands more people who were tacked on to a health service that was already creaking at the seams.
More recently, he demanded and got €35 million for the national treatment purchase fund, but then found that he could not spend it, which typifies the lack of forward planning in the health service in the past five years. If that did not raise alarm bells in the Department of Finance, it must have been that the Minister was deafened by the sound of champagne corks popping in his office. Over the past five years, the Minister for Finance without question signed the cheques and allowed the money to be poured into a black hole of a structure that was not changed for 30 years and by common consent was wholly inappropriate to today's needs. Despite the fact that half of a massive health budget was being poured into acute hospitals and there were 25,000 on the waiting list, no attempt was made to make the hard political decisions to define a strategy for these hospitals. Consequently the 1,200 consultants were not appointed and the 300 beds were not commissioned, all because the Minister could not decide where or in what speciality to locate them, which is now irrelevant as the money is no longer there.
The result is that some hospitals duplicate services in some parts of the country while in other parts there are no services. There is the scandal of Monaghan with 300 consultants, doctors, nurses and support staff idle so that the hospital is costing more closed than it was open. At any time in the health service, there are 600 acute beds, costing €3,500 per week, occupied by patients who are inappropriately placed, often because the local authorities have run out of the money needed to provide even a simple chair lift so that they can be discharged. Meanwhile, 25,000 acutely ill people are on waiting lists. How can this be justified and why did the Minister for Finance not call the Minister for Health and Children to account for such waste? Why were whole theatres closed and consultants and their expensive support staff idle because of the failure to maintain equipment?
I could go on endlessly with examples of waste and failure to obtain value for money in the health service. Worse is the absence of an information system. A child in the street could tell us that we cannot manage an operation as complex and costly as this service without the most up-to-date and reliable information. No private business would do it but the Minister, Deputy Martin, had no trouble doing so as he does not regard information systems as a priority, yet the Minister for Finance never called him to account. The Minister for Health and Children underestimated the number of patients over 70 and over-estimated the number of medical card patients. He may or may not have paid for patients who were dead, but it is reassuring that he is going to ask the health boards to check. The reality is that the Minister does not know how many clients he has or how many people work for him, but he just kept writing the cheques. He can no longer go back to the Minister, Deputy McCreevy, for more cheques because that Minister, with breathtaking carelessness, has managed to lose €4.8 billion in just 22 months.
The tragedy is that the much vaunted health strategy, which got the Government elected, is now effectively dead. The money needed to restructure the health service has disappeared into the wild blue yonder and the morale of the more than 100,000 people who work in it and who bought into the health strategy is at an all-time low. The patients have been betrayed most and they are being asked to pay with their money and health for the profligacy of the Minister for Finance. Pathetic attempts to claw back some of the over-spending by charging sick people were bad enough, but what is unforgivable is that none of the promises for the health service can be delivered, or we must wait for the birth of the next Celtic tiger. The public have no confidence that the Minister has the capacity to rebuild the nation's economy, or if he had, they would not trust him with it and neither would this House.
I propose to share my time with the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
The House agrees to the Taoiseach sharing his time with the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
I move amendment No. 1:
To delete all words "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:
"affirms its confidence in the Minister for Finance and in the Government policies, as endorsed by the electorate, to secure continued economic growth, high levels of employment and further social progress within a stable and sustainable budgetary framework."
A motion of no confidence is the ultimate sanction that Dáil Éireann has at its disposal and intended as an instrument of grave crisis or final ultimatum, yet only five months into its renewed mandate for opposition, Fine Gael has brought this motion against the Minister for Finance. It is not really about that Minister but the continuing political bankruptcy of Fine Gael. The policies put to the people by Fine Gael six months ago would have returned Ireland to where it left it when it last enjoyed a full term in Government in the 1980s. They would have plunged Ireland into a downward spiral of borrowing for current spending, job losses and emigration.
This motion is about Fine Gael attempting to rewrite its recent history. It is an attempt to whitewash the fact that Fine Gael treated the general election like an auction. It was prepared to auction off the family silver. It was prepared to take the brass off the door, to take the door off the hinges and to flog the lot.
The Opposition does not attract the same scrutiny as the Government. I understand that, but on this occasion an exception should be made. If the accusation against the Minister and the Government is of mismanagement, we must look at what Fine Gael proposed.
Based on his legacy.
Based on the exact same figures that were available to the Government parties, Fine Gael promised to tax less than Fianna Fáil, to spend more and to borrow less. This three card trick was backed up by a reserve plan of agreeing to whatever the Labour Party proposed. Fine Gael's concern for economic prudence now is too little too late.
The theme of missing billions is an interesting choice for Fine Gael. It combines highway robbery with massive fraud. It implies secret but lavish spending on a grand scale. It perfectly sums up Fine Gael's election manifesto which it is now trying to disown by projecting its worst excesses on to the Government.
Ultimately, however, it is the parties in government whom the people have chosen to trust. I take seriously the charge of deception that has been made against the Government. Worse than squandering the people's money is abusing the people's trust. Confidence in our public affairs, so difficult to build, is it seems just more ammunition for Fine Gael in its fight for lost ground. This is neither the first time nor the only issue in the short life of this Dáil that Fine Gael has made unsubstantiated personal accusations in the absence of evidence, let alone a reasoned case.
The Government has a proud record of achievement and integrity. We were frank about the changed circumstances which Ireland found itself in from the second half of 2001. At home, foot and mouth disease had impacted on our economy. Then the terrible events of 11 September impacted upon the world. This was in a context where the economy in the United States had already begun to slow significantly. It was against this background that budget 2002 was framed. In budget 2002, the Minister clearly signalled the slowdown ahead. Based on the information available, he anticipated a small surplus in 2002 of €170 million based on tax revenue growth of 8.6%. Based upon these same figures, the Fianna Fáil manifesto projected a €2.9 billion deficit for 2003 while Fine Gael projected a deficit of €1.9 billion and Labour anticipated a deficit in 2003 of €2.7 billion. As far back as last December, there was clear recognition that the era of double digit growth was over. It was stated plainly, clearly and repeatedly, and the deception is to pretend otherwise.
Fianna Fáil kept spending.
The Taoiseach still wanted to spend €1 billion on a national stadium.
Through 2002, events have moved on and we now find ourselves in a significantly tighter situation than anticipated last December. It is worth repeating again what the Minister for Finance had to say about this in an article in the Sunday Independent on 29 September last. He stated:
In an analysis of the end-May returns, the Revenue Commissioners, in a note to my department, "very tentatively" put forward the view that taxes might be €300 million below target. This figure was subsequently revised to €500 million at the end of the second quarter.
The facts of the matter are that prior to May 17, neither I nor the Government had information that showed Budget targets would not be met. The Monthly Expenditure reports for the Government, the reports from the Revenue Commissioners to my department on tax receipts, including projections for the rest of the year, and the briefing notes prepared by my department on the Monthly Exchequer Balance all bear this out.
I state categorically again, as the Minister for Finance has already done, that no information was kept from the people prior to the general election.
In the Fianna Fáil manifesto published on the day the general election was called my party made its position clear. We clearly stated up front in our manifesto:
The achievement of strong growth is, of course, dependent on renewed world growth and no adverse economic shocks. They also depend on the right policies continuing to be pursued domestically, particularly on maintaining competitiveness and sensible budgetary policies.
On the following day, when the Minister, Deputy McCreevy, published our party's economic document, the theme was developed further. That document entitled Delivering on Jobs and Growth stated:
We believe that the clear and obvious lesson of the times that Ireland has left behind is that we cannot tax and spend our way to employment and better services. In fact, the surest way to cause unemployment and undermine the public finances would be to implement unsustainable spending plans or to try to return to the days of high taxation.
Yet 500 jobs a week are going.
This latter paragraph was not only printed up front, it was printed in bold type as well. Our position could not have been clearer, it could not have been more clearly stated.
Given the colourful accusations being made about missing billions, it is ironic that over the past five years, the most trenchant criticisms of the Minister, Deputy McCreevy, were reserved for the money he saved rather than the money he spent. During the last Government, when Ireland was a world leader in economic growth the Minister kept our budget in surplus.
By papering over the cracks.
At a time when he kept the budget in surplus, he put 1% of our gross national product into the national pensions reserve fund to finance pensions after 2025. Further, he gave back nearly €5 billion in tax reductions to Irish workers. This was just the money that the Minister, Deputy McCreevy, did not spend. When the Government is asked tonight "where are the missing billions?", I say that they are where they belong. I say they are in safe keeping for a secure retirement for Irish workers. They are in the pockets of the working men and women whose hard work generated our wealth in the first place. They are there because of the vision and foresight of my colleague, the Minister for Finance.
These reductions in tax rates – 12 points in all – brought the standard rate to 20% and the higher rate to 42%. These reductions in tax went where they were needed most.
To the well off.
A fact often forgotten is that 89% of tax cuts went to others than those on the higher rate of tax. Lower taxation has resulted in an economy that has created jobs and generated the revenues to fund the sustained improvement of our social and physical infrastructure. When we are asked, "where are the missing billions?", I say that they have been invested in our future. Between 1907 and 2002, we will have increased current expenditure by €13.4 billion or 78% and we will have increased capital expenditure by €3.7 billion or 186%.
The Government has spent more than any other Government in the history of the State on social inclusion.
What about the adjustments?
We believe it is our responsibility to protect the vulnerable in society. It is not enough to wear your heart on your sleeve. Our record is one of action and achievement.
Social welfare spending has increased by two thirds over the 1997 figure. The honourable Deputy for Mayo said we did nothing for children. For children, we have trebled child benefit from €38.10 per month in 1997 to €171.60 per month today.
It is worth nothing in the real world.
Since 1997, child poverty has nearly halved. We have made our priorities clear. We said that it is at the beginning and end of our lives that we need help the most. In government, we have delivered record increases in old age pension. In 1997, it was €99, today it is €147, an increase of nearly 50%. Over the life of this Government, we pledge to increase that amount to €200. Government is about deciding what is really important, and this Government believes that looking after our senior citizens is important.
Health spending has increased by 134% since 1997. There are about 5,800 extra nurses working in Ireland since 1997. We have an additional 350 consultant doctors. The total number working in the health services has risen from 68.000 in 1997 to well over 90,000 today.
The waiting lists have increased as well.
If the Opposition is saying that those 90,000 are doing nothing it has until 8.30 p.m. tomorrow night to withdraw that. These thousands of extra people in our health services are delivering results. Last year 920,000 patients were discharged following treatment in our hospitals.
They were readmitted again.
That was an increase of nearly 50,000 on the previous year. These figures do not include two million attendances in out-patient departments and 1.25 million casualty attendees.
There are 25,000 on waiting lists.
When people ask where has the money gone, Deputies should tell them that it has gone on better pensions for our elderly, improved child benefit and record investment in our public services. We are among the most open economies in the world. We export 90% of everything we produce. As our markets abroad slow down, our economy will follow suit. It is a measure of how strong our economy remains that our performance still far outstrips most of our rivals. Only last week, some forecast that our economy would grow by 4% next year, more than twice the European Union average.
What about inflation?
The record of the past five years is of sustained and enduring achievement. The sustainability of that achievement can be measured against the achievements of the past five years and against the endurance of our economy over the coming years as well.
Much of what we have achieved together as a country can be traced back to the vision and skill of the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy.
Ask the people.
During his tenure, Ireland achieved one of the best economic performances in the world. In good times our economic growth averaged nearly 10% per annum. Now in more difficult times our economic growth continues to outpace that of our neighbours and partners. As the Prime Minister of Portugal said last week, he would love to have our problems in 2003.
High unemployment, the historic scourge of our country, has been dramatically reduced. More than 370,000 new jobs have been created.
And 500 a week lost.
Putting people back to work is the single and most important social change that has been brought about in this country's recent history. It has changed lives and communities and has transformed our country.
The mark of the Minister's tenure is not only of good management but of radical reform as well. Having discussed it for half a century, our taxation system has been radically overhauled by the Minister, Deputy McCreevy. The burden of personal taxation in Ireland is much less and much fairer. A business tax environment has been created that is supportive of jobs and of Ireland as a destination for investment in jobs. The business tax environment serves Ireland well and has been successfully defended in the European Union.
The Minister has pursued a policy of paying the national debt and of paying into a pension fund to secure a comfortable retirement for people who are working. These are farsighted decisions that can impact positively on our quality of life for a generation to come and long after we have left the House.
The boom has not been squandered. It has been spent wisely on the services we need today, invested prudently in the infrastructure we have needed for generations and has been saved with foresight for the retirement we all hope to enjoy.
On Thursday next the Minister for Finance will present the Estimates for next year, and three weeks from tomorrow he will present his sixth budget. The resources available will be focused on the priorities set out in the general election by the parties in Government. Delivery on these priorities will, as we said, be "predicated and dependent on continued growth in the economy". I await with interest to see if the concern of the Opposition about the public finances will survive in the cold light of the day after tomorrow.
The Taoiseach will not be present. It is a Thursday.
The Government's choice is simple. It is to manage through the global downturn prudently.
It is his pub opening day.
At least they are not all closing as they did a few years ago.
More pubs – that is a good answer.
It is to ensure that Ireland remains ready to take full advantage of an improvement in the world economy as soon as it comes.
We stand proudly on our record of achievement. We stand firmly by what we told the people. We stand resolutely with the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy.
I am delighted to reaffirm my confidence and that of the Progressive Democrats in the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy. In any Government the Minister for Finance plays a pivotal role. In the Irish Government, the Minister for Finance is central to the workings of Government across a range of areas. He or she is responsible for the stewardship of the public finances, the management of the public service and the implementation of the Government's social and economic programme. When one speaks of confidence in the Minister for Finance, one is therefore talking about confidence in the Government. When one speaks of the actions of the same Minister, one talks about the actions of the Government. When one speaks of the record of the Minister, one is talking about the record of the Government.
When the current Government parties formed the Government in 1997 we set out a challenging ambition – to revitalise the economy and trans form society. By any yardstick, we have done a fantastic job. I wish to put the record straight in many respects. Unemployment was at 11% when we took office; today it is just more than 4%. Long-term unemployment accounted for more than 90,000 people; today it has fallen to 22,000 people or 1.2%. Some 370,000 extra people are at work. The record in terms of the public finances could not be better.
I was abroad last week on parliamentary business, as many people in this House are periodically. When we meet the people who left this country in a different time, they are proud of what we have achieved. As we live through the transformation in the economy, some of us find it difficult to come to terms with what has happened. However, Irish people are returning to better jobs in Ireland today than they had in the United States, Germany and many other places.
They cannot get a house.
They cannot afford to buy a house.
I will deal with that in a moment.
Allow the Tánaiste speak without interruption, please.
The tone of the debate would give the impression that we are living through a recession. We occasionally need to be less isolationist and negative and look at what is happening in the international economy. When we recognise that 80% of what we produce must be exported and sold in international markets and that six out of every ten people at work in the economy depend for their jobs on us performing well in export markets, that should put matters in perspective.
Italy's economy will grow 0.5% this year and they do not regard that as a crisis.
What Government is spending ten times its revenue?
In Germany—
Methinks she doth protest too much.
Allow the Tánaiste speak without interruption. She is entitled to the same courtesy as was afforded to the four Opposition Members who have already spoken. She should be allowed deliver her speech without interruption.
While I believe Deputy Richard Bruton is trying to return Fine Gael to fiscal rectitude, I will not take a lecture from a party which promised in the run-up to the election to compensate every taxi driver, every Eircom shareholder and several others as well.
Where was the Tánaiste when the legislation deregulating the taxi industry was being passed?
Allow the Tánaiste speak without interruption.
Neither am I going to take lectures from a party that spent a considerable amount of time putting up the famous snail poster throughout the country. I will not take lectures from such people regarding the economy.
When the Tánaiste came into office in 1997, 1,000 jobs were being created each week. Now 500 a week are being lost.
The Tánaiste trusts her partners in Government enough to allow them spend ten times the revenue they receive.
Deputy Bruton has had his opportunity.
Deputy Bruton, every day in the House you and your colleagues request more money for this, that and every other area.
We want better value for money.
If the Minister addressed her remarks through the Chair she might not invite interruption.
I am trying to address my remarks through the Chair. The Minister for Finance has proved that he has the capacity to take bold and imaginative measures.
He will bankrupt the country.
He has radically transformed the income tax system. The introduction of tax credits is probably the greatest change in the personal income tax system in a generation. It has delivered more reliefs to people on low and modest incomes. It has genuinely helped make the system fairer and more transparent. For example, the contribution income tax makes to our total tax take has fallen from more than 36% when the parties opposite were in Government to 32%, whereas the contribution of corporation tax to our overall tax take has increased from 11% to more than 15%.
The tax reform proposals are the key to much of the economic success we have experienced in this country in recent years because they reward risk-taking, encourage investment and enterprise and help create employment. Those tax measures would not have been introduced lightly by many in the Department of Finance and were pioneered courageously and correctly by the Minister for Fin ance. They play a hugely important role in making this country the most attractive in the European Union from a foreign investment perspective.
When will the Tánaiste mention inflation?
When the current parties took office in 1997, most people predicted we would not last six months. When Deputy Richard Bruton was leaving the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, he felt he would be back in six months.
The Minister should produce the evidence for that.
He could not get anything right.
It might have been better if I had stayed there.
The durability of these parties in Government has surprised many people on the outside. It has not surprised many within Government. That durability is largely based on the rock, which is the Minister for Finance. He is a rock.
He is the rock on which the Government will perish.
He is a rock of common sense and stability.
The Rock of Gibraltar.
The Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, has delivered five budgets. He has delivered as many budgets as Deputy Rabbitte has been in political parties at this stage.
The Minister has moved around a bit herself.
She is back with the one she left.
In case Deputy Rabbitte thinks I got my sums wrong, I am counting the Labour Party twice because it was in and out.
Like the international economy, the Irish economy is under enormous pressure. There are challenges and they are uniquely Irish challenges, because, as the Taoiseach said—
We have a unique Minister.
We have huge budget surpluses. Unlike so many other member states, we are not in breach—
As Deputy Bruton will agree, we still have huge current budget surpluses. Does Deputy Bruton agree?
If the Minister will permit me, I will respond.
Have we current budget surpluses?
Last year we were facing a €2.5 billion deficit in the Exchequer balances. What did Deputy Harney permit the Minister to do? She allowed him to bring forward her beloved corporation tax. She allowed him to raid the euro changeover fund, the social insurance fund and the special redemption accounts.
Unlike several other EU states we are not in breach of the terms of the Stability and Growth Pact—
The Government is heading towards that.
—and the Members opposite know we will not.
We are nowhere near it.
The Government is heading towards the rock that is beside the Minister.
We have a challenge and when the Book of Estimates is published on Thursday and when the budget is announced in three weeks, it will be clear to everybody in this House and elsewhere that the Government has the capacity to take the measures necessary to—
Now that the election is over.
It has nothing to do with the election. The Government will take the decisions necessary to chart us through this challenging period and make sure that when the international economy recovers, Ireland will continue to do spectacularly well. We will do so because we have a flexible workforce and low corporate taxes. We remain the country of choice within the European Union for much of the investment from the United States into Europe. We get by far the largest share in getting more than 20% of the mobile investment as against a population of less than 1%. They are the facts.
We have been in an expanding economy over the past five years. The population has grown. So far this year we have granted as many work permits as we did for the whole of last year. That does not indicate an economy in crisis or difficulty. People would not be coming here to work in such huge numbers if the jobs were not available. I do not wish to take away from the fact that, unfortunately, too many people are losing their jobs because of the international difficulties. The challenge for us is to ensure we have the appropriate policies in place to make sure that when the economic recovery comes, we can again get the kind of share of investment and the growth in the economy we experienced in the past.
Deputy Rabbitte spoke earlier of the stallion returning to the stud. I know the Minister for Finance is a racing man and he knows much more about it than I do. This racing horse from Kildare has no plans to return to the fields of Kildare for the moment. It is too early for him to contemplate that.
However, the horse has bolted.
On the social agenda, the economic success we have generated has been shared more widely on social spending than ever before. Spending on health has gone up from €3 billion when we took office in 1997 to more than €8 billion.
The level of service has gone down.
Child benefit has increased threefold so that more money could go to working parents and, in particular, to mothers. We set a target for the old age pension of £100 and we have more than exceeded that. We have substantially increased spending on education. We have challenges. We need more investment in public transport and in roads infrastructure. We need to continue the investment in health and education, like any growing economy.
What about housing?
Yes, of course in housing. All these are necessary because of the rate of expansion in the economy. As economies grow, there are more requirements for social and public infrastructure.
Some 80,000 people have no housing.
What about inflation?
There are 370,000 more people at work than there were five years ago. People are no longer forced to emigrate. Those who go do so voluntarily. The economic management of the country is in sound hands in those of the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy. He is prepared to support risk-taking in enterprise and to encourage employment by decreasing the rate of tax paid by those at work. For the first time in recent years we have a national minimum wage. The State recognises there is a minimum someone should earn for his or her effort and 90% of that wage is outside the tax net. This is not the approach that would be taken by a Government that is interested in one section of society. The most effective way to help people out of poverty so they can participate in the economic and social development of their own country is by helping them into employment. We have record numbers of people moving from welfare into employment. As long as that is the case, this is not an economy in the kind of difficulty and crisis other Deputies talked about earlier in this debate.
I am delighted we have an opportunity to discuss this motion and to have a more—
The Minister made no mention of inflation.
—rational debate when the facts – not fiction – can be debated between both sides.
The Minister has not mentioned community employment schemes yet.
Is the Deputy looking for a job?
The one Bertie is in.
We have 25,000 people on community employment. We have mainstreamed those working in education. There are 370,000 extra people at work. There are 40,000 more people in training for jobs in this economy. In a tightened labour market, clearly the circumstances are different and we have to respond. Unfortunately in a different era, people had no option but community employment, but today other options are being created. I am the first to recognise community employment plays an important role in the social infrastructure of our society.
The Minister wants to cut the numbers by 10,000.
Deputy Bruton wants us to cut them as well. The Members opposite should make up their minds.
As I said at the outset, I am happy to reaffirm my confidence and that of my party in the Minister for Finance. I am satisfied he is the person, perhaps more capable than anyone else in this House, or as capable as few that have ever been in this House, to steer us through the challenging and difficult times that lie ahead. Clearly we have to respond to the changed circumstances in this economy. There is a challenge as far as public spending is concerned and that challenge is clear to most people who want to be fair about it because of the difficulties that have occurred in the international economy and not because of any dishonesty or mismanagement on the part of the Minister for Finance or the Government.
I wish to share my time with Deputy Stanton.
I am fascinated by the Tánaiste's wish not to put Deputy McCreevy out to stud at this time because, if she does, he is likely to earn more money for the State than he is as Minister for Finance. I am also very confused that the Tánaiste does not know the difference between the economy and the public finances. I did not hear anyone say this economy was in recession or in tatters. The argument has been about the Minister's management of the public finances and that is a distinctly different issue. I know she is away a lot but, if the Tánaiste wants to give the impression that somehow the Minister for Finance has competently managed the public finances over the last two and a half years in particular, she is living on a different planet to the rest of us. It is almost impossible for the Minister to have done as much damage as he has over the last two years and it is almost unthinkable, given the pretensions to fiscal rectitude the Minister had when he was a backbencher, the damage that has been done by his engaging in the spending splurge running up to the general election.
The Tánaiste knows that, as a result, the weakest most vulnerable sections of our community, people on low incomes – in or out of employment – and people living on the margins will pay for the austerity programme that is now essential as a result of how the Minister has mismanaged the public finances. For the Tánaiste to go on about all the jobs the Government has created is an entirely different issue The Tánaiste frequently claims credit in this House – as does the Minister for Finance – but it is remarkable that now, when we are facing a downturn, the Tánaiste has no responsibility for it and neither does the Minister for Finance. Global factors are apparently responsible for the downturn but "Champagne Charlie" and "Good Time Mary" created the boom. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The expansion which took place in the private sector was for different reasons upon which we are all agreed and on which there was very little difference between any Government in office over the last 25 years. These were decisions about investment in education, the tax regime and the availability of skilled labour. These are the factors that created the job expansion to which the Tánaiste now lays claim. When things were right, the Minister told us to party and that he would give the money back to those who created and that the good times would go on forever. Yet now, when we have a downturn, the Government says it has nothing to do with it and that global factors are responsible. I do not believe that will wash, nor do I believe that the efforts made by the Taoiseach to suggest that the Minister for Finance has been consistent and revealed all to the people coming up to the general election are believed by anybody in this House and certainly not by anyone outside it. Every impression was given that the boom would go on forever and that we were living in the good times. The entire presentation made by the Government was to mislead the people about the state of the public finances.
I know the Minister will say that in the small print of the budget last year it showed the Exchequer would be facing deficits of €3 billion and more than €3.5 billion in 2003 and 2004, respectively. Can we imagine what the figure will be when the Minister presents his budget on 4 or 5 December this year when the carryover from last year for the spending splurge he engaged in was €3 billion? I do not know how the Taoiseach can say the Minister did not mislead the House. In proposing the motion, Deputy Richard Bruton adverted to the unequivocal undertaking the Taoiseach gave to the then Leader of Fine Gael when he said "I can confirm that there are no significant over-runs projected and no cutbacks whatsoever are being planned, secretly or otherwise". The Tánaiste and the Taoiseach can speak about what was in one paragraph of an 84 page manifesto but what was communicated to the people is what was communicated in that sentence to the then Leader of Fine Gael. That was the conviction of the people and on that basis they went to the polls.
We are already seeing the effects everywhere. The promise to extend the eligibility for medical cards has been reneged on; the registration fees for college students have been increased; various service industries have been engaged in excessive profit taking and the CE schemes are being dismantled in many areas. All this is happening before the budget, so what will we face in its wake?
The boom is gone and the Minister has officially told us so. The surplus has evaporated, the public finances are in a state of considerable disorder, the capital programme is behind and our streets are congested. The opportunity for the first time in the history of the State to use the unprecedented resources we have had to make a real impact in tackling disadvantage has been missed. Unfortunately, the need for public spending has not gone away but the critical issue must always be the quality of spending and value for money and that the public finances are managed prudently.
I agree with Deputy Olivia Mitchell's observations on the Government's boasting about health spending. Money was thrown at the problem without fundamental reform of the health system. While the good times rolled, it was possible to keep throwing money at it but now we see the same queues the Taoiseach promised to eliminate in two years and the same problems are there. Three new health boards were created in Dublin and, as far as I can see, all that was created were new titles, posts and bureaucrats but at the coalface, the health services are worse than they ever were, even after providing all those hundreds of millions of euro.
The Tánaiste and the Minister for Finance are the gurus of fiscal rectitude who believe in the neo-liberal economy. They are the people sup posed to believe in value for money but nobody spent money like this Minister – he spent it like a drunken sailor for the 18 months up to the general election and it now cannot be gainsaid any longer. The information is in the public arena and we will see the full scale of it on budget day. The Book of Estimates will be published on Thursday and we will then see how programmes for which the Tánaiste herself is responsible will be impacted upon. That is the reality and the people outside this House know they were misled. They know they had the position on the economy misrepresented to them and they know that they are the ones who will pay. The Tánaiste may think that a tax exempt industry like the bloodstock industry is a matter for laughter.
I do not actually.
I am glad to hear it because many people would like to know why they will be asked to pay for the Minister's mismanagement while an entire industry is tax exempt. Experts estimate the industry is worth €100 million foregone in tax to the Exchequer. That would create 1,000 hospital beds. It is a real issue. If the Tánaiste is concerned about it, will she persuade the defender of the horse industry to introduce measures in the budget that will at least make it accountable, transparent and will impose some form of modest tax regime on them? That will be the real test because the Minister will have to levy taxes somewhere and I am willing to lay a wager tonight that it will not be on his friends in the K Club and in the bloodstock industry.
I support the motion of no confidence in the Minister for Finance, whose responsibility also includes the public service. In effect, we are calling on the Taoiseach to replace the Minister, whose underlying philosophy is to look after the rich and to hell with the rest. In relation to the savings scheme, it is being said it should be capped or scrapped. I do not believe this can be done, but it appears the scheme will cost up to €500 million this year alone, or €2.5 billion over a five year period, to give money to people who had enough to spare to enable them to put some away anyhow. That is indicative of the underlying philosophy of the Minister and the Government. The Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Parlon, is being sent hither, thither and yon in an effort to sell off State properties to boost the public finances. It is a panic measure.
The Taoiseach began by attacking the Opposition – a tactic which, presumably, he picked up from the famous think tank set up during the general election campaign and which ensured the public was conned. The spontaneous reaction of the audience when the Minister for Finance appeared on "The Late Late Show" recently on RTE is indicative of the degree of public unhappiness with his management. The spontaneous booing on that occasion was obviously not to his liking, but, like it or not, it reflected the mood of the public. People are very angry with him and the Government. According to the Taoiseach, the Minister said on 29 September that neither he nor the Government had information to indicate that budget targets would not be met. Why did he not have that information? He should have known, but miscalculated hugely in the amount he gave away. He did not know how much it would cost. It seems he did not know how many were at work in the economy when he decided to cut taxes.
The Minister was reported as saying it was his job to win the general election for Fianna Fáil. That, in itself, is an indictment of his priorities – party first, people later; politics before people. That is where the Government is coming from. A short time ago, when the community employment schemes were mentioned, the ranks of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats laughed. The schemes relate to the weakest of the weak, those struggling to make a living and who want to work with dignity. The policies of the Government will force many of them onto the dole queues yet again. How could Deputies on the Government side of the House laugh at this? It is just not good enough, but underlines the basic philosophy of the Minister, for whom the poor and downtrodden at the lower end of the scale do not matter. Those who have to be looked after at all times are the Minister's friends.
The Tánaiste referred to the national minimum wage, with a throwaway remark that most people at that level are not taxed. The fact that the minimum wage is still taxed, years after its introduction, again illustrates the Government's underlying philosophy. An article by Vincent Browne in The Irish Times today shows that people are getting away with hundreds of thousands of euro in unpaid taxes. Why is that the case? Accountants have told me they have instructions from Revenue and departmental officials to use every loophole to get at small taxpayers – they are the ones being targeted by the Government. The Minister for Finance speaks of cutting our cloth according to our measure, but applies this only to the poorer sections of society.
I remind the House of the great debacle of the Government's handling of the Eircom sale when, once again, the people were conned. Millions in government funding was spent on advertising to induce people to buy shares in which the Minister had a central role, in collaboration with the then Minister for Public Enterprise. Having placed their trust in the Government, many lost their life savings in that operation. The Government led people to believe they would never experience poverty again. The message was to party on and spend, spend, spend. Now, the message is to cut, cut, cut. Again, it is those at the lower end of the scale who will suffer most. Health boards are being told to cut back and the same message is going out to the Garda and all State agencies. Schools are finding it difficult to get funds. The Minister for Education and Science will not even answer questions in the House on the expenditure on schools, but simply refers Deputies to his Department's website. In this regard also, the message is to cut, cut and cut again.
At the time of the euro changeover, the Minister for Finance and the Government promised there would be no price increases, yet we now have the highest inflation rate in Europe and are losing competitiveness. When the rainbow Government left office in 1997, the economy was creating 1,000 jobs per week. The Minister for Finance found a crock of gold at the end of the rainbow and lived off it for some years, but it has now run out. After five years of his stewardship, we are losing 500 jobs per week and this figure is rising rapidly. If the trend continues, we will very soon have regressed to the situation of the 1980s. The Taoiseach must reshuffle his Cabinet, remove the Minister before he does any more damage and replace him with somebody capable of managing the economy responsibly. Such management has been lacking to date. The Minister has tried scheme after scheme, pulling rabbits out of hats and performing conjuring tricks with the national finances. He has pulled revenue from next year into this year's accounts, raided the social insurance fund and Central Bank funds until stopped by EU intervention.
People are waiting in fear and trepidation as to the Minister's intentions for the upcoming budget. Communities are worried and afraid of what he may cook up next. He is also the Minister for the Public Service who, some years ago, promised decentralisation, with thousands of civil servants being decamped to various locations. In reality, very little has happened in that regard, except where a few Ministers got in on the act and managed to move parts of Departments to their home constituencies. There has not been any major decentralisation. When I challenged the Minister on this issue some two and a half years ago, he said it would take place in the month of September. However, he did not specify which September he had in mind and, in reality, nothing has happened to date.
With regard to expenditure, the Minister has totally lost control of the situation. In order to restore national confidence, it is time he decided to move aside and, if he does not go, he should be moved. Public anger and unhappiness are causing a severe loss of confidence which is so vital to society.
