It is about time that Members began to focus on the economic situation. For my part, having visited all constituencies in the past two and a half months, it is obvious that for the first time in years, the Fianna Fáil Party will be obliged to clean up a mess it created itself.
Leaders’ Questions.
Hear, hear.
This will be a serious challenge——
Absolutely.
——and the Taoiseach has presided over most of it for the last couple of years. Ireland faces a serious economic challenge as growth is projected to be slightly more than 1% this year. More than 200,000 people were on the live register in May and there is a shortfall in taxes of €3 billion, in addition to the unprecedented projected deficit of €5 billion. This means that businessmen, commuters and average workers face a period of great uncertainty and there is palpable evidence of a leaking of confidence from the economy.
The point is that people are anxious that the Government has no plan to manage the economy in a manner that would protect their incomes and livelihoods. The only evidence provided in this House of a plan in the past month was a comment from the Taoiseach in respect of the national development plan, in which he stated it was unlikely the Government would be in a position to spend the projected €252 million over the lifetime of the plan to provide information technology in schools to enable young people to measure up to the competition from abroad. From this perspective, it also is obvious that people are more than concerned and are becoming highly agitated that the Government does not have a plan to manage the economy through the challenges that lie ahead. Increasingly, people are becoming more concerned about the security of their jobs and incomes, the value of their houses and pensions, serious cutbacks in health and education and rising spending pressure in the Department of Social and Family Affairs. The Taoiseach stated yesterday he would take some action to curb the growth in current spending and that this would be brought about by adjustments. What action does the Taoiseach propose to take and when is it proposed to take it? Can the Taoiseach provide a guarantee that frontline services will not be chopped in any adjustments that are made?
As for the management of the economy, the Government is focused on maintaining budgetary discipline. As I have said a number of times, the leader of the Opposition's critique is contradictory. On the one hand, he asserts the Government is not spending enough on services while on the other hand, he complains on a constant level——
It is the same old story all the time.
The Taoiseach, without interruption.
He repeats that every morning.
The Taoiseach is in government.
His problem is that he does not have a policy. The Government will seek to maintain its budgetary parameters during the course of the year.
It will close Mallow hospital.
Obviously the reduction in growth in the economy requires the Government to take account of the fact that its tax revenues will not be as buoyant as was otherwise hoped.
Look at the money the Government wasted.
The downside scenario and risks that were outlined in the Budget Statement have materialised in practically all cases. Ireland is not immune from those international developments. The Government will seek to ensure that it works within the budgetary parameters it has set itself, which will involve budgetary discipline. The Leader of the Opposition will have to make a choice as to whether he believes this is the approach or whether he wishes to continue to spend.
It is the Taoiseach who must make a choice.
(Interruptions).
An Teachta Ó Coinnigh arís. Deputy Kenny, without interruption.
The Taoiseach's predecessor used to read out a list of statistics from a black book every morning. The Taoiseach is repeating the mantra that one cannot have it both ways, by talking about both increased spending and cutbacks. The Taoiseach who faces this position was the Minister for Finance who presided over the veneer of perfection in the economy within recent years.
Deputies
Hear, hear.
He faces a rude awakening.
It is coming home to roost at present. The Taoiseach has landed his Minister for Finance, who is absent, with an unholy mess. This is the first time for a long time that Fianna Fáil in government will be obliged to clean up a mess of its own economic making and it seems this will be extremely painful.
Fianna Fáil has been obliged to clean up after Fine Gael on many occasions.
Those who face a 30% hike in electricity charges cannot wait to see what kind of plan the Government will produce to manage the economy. The Government has put them in a position in which they are being stretched beyond the limit on a weekly basis. Every commuter faces rising petrol and diesel prices. Business competitiveness is drifting from us and small business and retail units are at the point of breaking down. There is no plan beyond the Taoiseach's words stating that we will manage our way through this.
I refer to the great monolith called the HSE, which the Taoiseach funded as Minister for Finance. A number of years ago, a report from Professor Drumm stated there were 2,500 too many people in the system. In recent weeks, another report has stated there are 1,000 too many in the system. The Minister for Health and Children, who also is absent from the Chamber, has stated it was premature to speculate as to the extent of redundancies or otherwise in the HSE. I wish to ask the Taoiseach a straight question in this regard. In the Taoiseach's consideration, are there sufficient numbers in the HSE or are there too many? We have very contradictory reports about this. There was an amalgamation of all the health boards involving 110,000 employees. As the Minister for Finance who funded this, and now as the Taoiseach who must preside over the "adjustments", as he calls them, are the numbers in the HSE too high or too low? Can he give the House a guarantee that we will not be faced with a series of practical problems for thousands of people because front line services are the first to get the chop due to the bureaucratic bloating that took place under his stewardship as Minister for Finance?
I listened this morning to the director of St. Michael's Hospital, who is being asked to make the choice about which children he is to leave out of his hospital.
You are over time.
That is a scandalous position in 2008 and it has been created by the Taoiseach. I would like him to answer me about the HSE.
I would once again like to speak to the Deputy about his overall budgetary position. The Deputy next to him claims that I spent too much money last year and this year. Now Deputy Kenny is claiming that we are not spending enough, so he must figure out where his party stands on this issue.
Answer the question.
Let us hear what the Government is doing.
Who said that the economy could sustain a downturn? Who spent money on the basis of unsustainable revenue from property taxes?
Deputy Bruton is completely out of order. This is Leaders' Questions, so others cannot ask the Taoiseach anything.
(Interruptions).
That is another untruth.
The time for bluster is over.
Shouting will not help the Deputy devise a policy.
The Taoiseach is doing a lot of shouting himself.
I am not shouting at all.
The Taoiseach has no answer.
I am just trying to be heard.
Let me remind Members that this is Leaders' Questions. This means that the leaders of the parties ask questions and it is not for anybody else to intervene. An Taoiseach, without interruption.
This is government by Opposition now.
Thanks be to God we do not have that. The Leader of the Opposition raised some points about electricity. Rising costs in materials like gas, coal and oil on the wholesale markets have put suppliers under pressure. Since the latest price review last year, the cost of gas and oil has gone up by between 80% and 100%.
I understand that the amount quoted in the newspapers today is speculative and I remind the House that, in 1999, the Dáil established the Commission on Energy Regulation with a remit to oversee the operation of the electricity and natural gas industries. The CER operates independently of the Government and its functions are wide-ranging. It covers areas of security, safety and reliability of supply, as well as environmental protection. The regulator is also mandated by the Government to act in the interests of customers to ensure that prices charged are reasonable in all circumstances.
The process that applies to setting electricity tariffs is that the ESB will present its price case to the CER, something which is expected towards the end of July. Following a full review of that case, which includes an independent review of fuel prices, the ESB's own costs and its ongoing investment requirements, the CER will engage in a public consultation process. This will focus on what the CER views as a fair and reasonable cost to the industry. A final new tariff, if allowed, is expected to be announced at the end of August or early September. The process is in the interests of the customer and not the electricity industry. That is the position.
What is the Government's position?
That is the position.
Is that the Government's position, or the position of the CER?
I am sorry, but I have just outlined the position.
The other question was about disability services. Since 2004, we have seen multi-annual budgetary commitments being made to the disability sector. These were instigated in my own time and I continue to show a commitment to them. We have seen a consistent increase in the numbers being provided with services. This year, we are providing 30,000 people with day services, 8,800 with residential care services and 7,200 with respite services. That is a large increase on what was the case some years ago.
The HSE is currently reviewing its overall financial position for the year. The roll-out of planned developments in disability services is being considered in that context. The Minister for Health and Children has been in communication with the HSE with a view to an early determination on the matter. The HSE agreed with the Department that the allocation of the funding for this year should provide 200 extra residential places for people with intellectual disability, 53 respite places, 450 day places, 80 residential places for people with physical and sensory disability and 250,000 hours of personal assistance and home support services, as well as a number of posts for providing assessment and ongoing interventions. This is mainly for children under five, which was the agreement under the Disability Act 2005 and with the disability sector. There is also a review of all this under the Towards 2016 discussions in the social partnership context.
There has been a considerable increase and there will continue to be services provided for people with disability. The Deputy continues to portray the HSE negatively in everything that it does. However, it is fair to point out that in its report on its activities for 2007, it exceeded the service plan levels of activity in many areas.
What about the numbers? I asked the Taoiseach about the numbers.
There are still problems, but it is not fair or accurate to portray constantly the necessary reforms in the health service as bringing about a continuous disimprovement in services. It is a narrative that continues all the time.
We are over time.
There is a review taking place on manpower policy.
Another review.
No. This has been practically completed and it involves a very detailed assessment of how we can make sure that the configuration of personnel is more at the front line than in the administrative area. It also recognises, in fairness to those who work in support services, that the actual allocation of resources for people in those services is not totally out of kilter with international practice. There is room for people to reconfigure on the basis of industrial relations practice and of trying to do the job properly. Facile, simple solutions are not the way. Changes have been made by the HSE. There has been a range of real successes. There is an acknowledgement and understanding that the status quo is not sustainable going forward, that we are changing the service delivery model in the health service, that we must move more into the community and primary care area and that a changeover is taking place.
The HSE has confirmed that there has been a greater rate of increase in public health——
These are cutbacks.
I am trying to answer questions raised by Deputy Kenny. I can answer other questions when those Deputies are in a position to raise them as well.
The OECD confirmed that between 1995 and 2005, the second greatest rate of increases in health spending occurred in this country. We are applying €14.2 billion to the health service this year, which represents €9,730 for every taxpayer in the country. This represents practically the full take of income tax to the Exchequer revenue for this year. There is a considerable allocation of resources and we must work within those budgetary parameters to meet the situation to which the Deputy referred in the first part of his comments. The second part of the Deputy's comment tried to disregard that aspect.
(Interruptions).
Iarrfaidh mé anois ar cheannaire Phairtí an Lucht Oibre, an Teachta Eamon Gilmore, a cheist a chur.
I want the Taoiseach to picture a primary school. Looking at a primary school in this country today, the first thing that would strike him is the number of prefabs. There is a clutter of prefabs in school yards, as well as prefab extensions. Sometimes the entire school is a prefab. The Labour Party spokesperson on education, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, had been asking the previous Minister for the past six months how many prefab buildings there are in primary schools. She had been telling him that the information was not available in her Department. However, the Minister for Education, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, recently wrote to Deputy Quinn and told him that there are 2,235 pre-fabs in more than 800 primary schools throughout the country. Some 1,372 of those are being used for mainstream classes, 552 as resource rooms and 72 for special needs education. There are 40,000 primary school children attending classes in pre-fab buildings, which are hard to heat in winter and very difficult to keep cool at this time of the year. They are certainly not suitable on a long-term basis.
Does the Taoiseach believe it is acceptable that 40,000 children should have to go school in pre-fab buildings? Is that good enough after ten or 11 years of the best economic performance this country has ever had?
The worst Government.
Does he agree that there is now a solution to this problem? We know there is a downturn in residential construction. We are being told that by the end of 2009 something like 65,000 jobs will have been lost in this sector, so there is now a capacity to build schools. Now that there is a slowdown in residential construction, which has the same skill set as that required for the building of schools, will he take the opportunity to accelerate the school building programme to bring forward a plan for the construction of permanent school rooms and extensions that principals all over the country have been applying to the Department for over a number of years? This would take 40,000 children out of pre-fab buildings and put them into the type of schoolrooms they ought to have in this day and age.
There are 850,000 pupils in first and second level education and 4,000 schools. The Deputy is correct about the unprecedented capital investment programme for school building over the past ten years, something of which this Administration is very proud. In an effort to deal with historic problems, there has also been a need to provide extra teachers quickly — particularly resource teachers for students with specials needs. These were in their tens and hundreds when we came into office and I am glad to say they are now in their thousands. We are providing 8,000 special needs assistants alone and 7,000 resource and learning support teachers. That is an indication of the effort to deal with this issue. The point raised by the Deputy must be seen in that context.
Is there a suggestion that, rather than providing temporary accommodation which is of good quality in many cases, we should wait until the classrooms are built before putting in the teachers? A decision has to be made. We are putting in extra teachers to reduce class sizes, providing extra supports in their thousands as well as a major capital investment programme. This year——
We are going back to the hedge schools.
That is absolute nonsense. If that is the level of debate we are going to have, it is nonsense.
That is what the Taoiseach is talking about. He is talking nonsense.
There are 2,000 pre-fab schools.
We have seen the most accelerated and comprehensive capital programme for the modernisation of the school system in the history of the State, but the comment I hear back is "hedge schools". If that is the size of the policy content where the Deputy is coming from——
(Interruptions.)
I do not suggest for a moment that there are not continuing challenges or that one can be complacent about their nature. However, I defend the Government's record in terms of what has been achieved under successive Ministers as a result of successful policies. I recognise that, in reducing class sizes, providing thousands of resource teachers and more special assistances, there will be cases — as there always have been — where temporary accommodation is required. I acknowledge that in some instances this has been going on too long and I respect that some people have grievances in this regard, but do not portray the education system as being totally bereft of development or modernisation because that is not a true reflection of the situation.
(Interruptions.)
The Deputies called them "hedge schools".
That was Deputy Costello.
I asked the Taoiseach a very simple question, which I thought was not that difficult to answer. I asked him about pre-fabs and primary schools. However, he talked about primary and secondary schools, teachers, hedge schools——
(Interruptions.)
——anything to hedge away from giving an answer.
Smart comments.
There is a very simple problem here. Some 40,000 children go to school in pre-fab buildings, which is not acceptable to anybody. We all understand that a temporary situation can arise in any school which can be met by having a pre-fab for a year or two while an extension is being built or whatever. However, the problem is that many of these pre-fabs are in effect the permanent schools. We do not even know how long many of them have been in place, although from looking at them in our constituencies we realise that quite a number have been there for very long periods of time.
I am asking the Taoiseach to acknowledge to the House, to the children attending such pre-fabs, the teachers who must teach in them and the parents that the situation is not acceptable to him as head of the Government. Now that there is a downturn in housing construction, I ask him to take the opportunity to accelerate the school building programme. All of the schools concerned have made applications over time to the Department of Education and Science for extensions, new schools or whatever replacement class rooms they need.
The problem is that when they contact the Department of Education and Science, the telephone is dead. They cannot get an answer, and the situation has become worse in recent times as, presumably, the Department cuts, pares and does whatever is needed in light of the current public finances. I am simply putting it to the Taoiseach that there is a solution to the problem. There is now spare capacity in construction and why can this not be utilised to accelerate the school building programme? This would do two things simultaneously. It would provide the schools that will have to be built anyway, because at the moment the Government is pouring money down the drain. The State is paying €35 million a year in rent for some of these temporary structures and the schools will have to be provided anyway. We have to build schools for a growing population and so it is as well to do it now.
Second, there is the added advantage of doing it now because it would give a boost to the construction sector and ensure the spare capacity is utilised. Given the state that construction is in, a better deal could be agreed in terms of the cost of constructing these buildings at this stage.
Hear, hear.
To answer Deputy Gilmore's questions directly, about 4% of the total student population is being educated in what he calls temporary accommodation in terms of the full school-going population. That is the size of the problem he is addressing. It will always be the case in trying to deal with increased student intake in rapidly developing areas that schools need to be provided where heretofore there were not even communities. Priority has been given to this and to children with special needs. Classes have been provided for autism, for instance, and there are 200 special classes now in the system, whereas we had none before. Those types of situations must be catered for and in the context of that there will be continuing occasions, I suggest, where temporary accommodation is part of the solution. It is not the permanent answer to the provision of education in schools, but given the practicality involved in providing for the extra teacher because of the growth in intake or whatever for the following September, this is what happens. There is good quality temporary accommodation in place, as well as poor quality temporary accommodation because it has been there for too long and some schools have not been able to get their projects completed. This is against a background of a €640 million capital allocation this year for schools alone.
It will all be going to County Offaly.
That is the largest allocation ever made for the capital programme in education. It is true that some of that construction activity offsets the reduction in residential housing output but not to the full extent. We all know that. We are also aware that we doubled construction industry employment levels. While employment levels in the industry will be reduced this year from 300,000 to 240,000, when we came into office only 120,000 workers were employed in that industry. While I do not have the information in front of me, I would like to know what the capital budget for schools was in 1997, but I am sure it was a lot less than it is now, and I would expect it to have been so.
What has that got to do with anything?
Credit must be given where it is due. A sum of €640 million is being provided this year for schools alone. The Government will continue to examine how to provide priority investments in education in forthcoming budgets. We have always done that and it remains a priority area. However, there are varying levels of priority in the area. For example, no one contests that in rapidly developing areas a school must be provided while in other cases a school may need an extra prefab to deal with the extra intake, but the latter's level of priority cannot be as high as the case where there is no school and that is the prioritising that is taking place.
The contractual commitments for this year already account for €200 million. It comprises large-scale projects under construction at the start of the year. Projects are constructed under the permanent accommodation and small schools schemes and other commitments. There are projects commencing construction which will account for another €243 million. This problem is, therefore, being addressed significantly. Over €100 million is going into the permanent accommodation and small schools scheme this year. I do not accept there is indifference, inactivity or non-prioritisation of this matter in what is certainly a difficult year but one in which we must work within the budgets we have. The Government will continue to give priority to this important area.