Estimates for Public Services 2009.

Minister for Defence (Deputy Willie O’Dea)

I move the following Supplementary Estimates:

Vote 19 — Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €1,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2009, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Probation Service staff and of certain other services including payments under cash-limited schemes administered by that Office, and payment of certain grants and grants-in-aid.

Vote 20 — Garda Síochána (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €30,000,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2009, for the salaries and expenses of the Garda Síochána, including pensions, etc.; for payments of compensation and other expenses arising out of service in the Local Security Force, for the payment of certain witnesses' expenses, and for payment of a grant-in-aid.

Vote 22 — Courts Service (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €1,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2009, for such of the salaries and expenses of the Courts Service and of the Supreme Court, the High Court, the Special Criminal Court, the Circuit Court and the District Court and of certain other minor services as are not charged to the Central Fund.

Vote 27 — Department of Community, Rural And Gaeltacht Affairs (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €1,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2009, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, for certain services administered by that Office, and for the payment of certain grants.

Vote 30 — Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €1,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2009, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, including certain services administered by that Office, and for payment of certain grants and sundry grants-in-aid, and for the payment of certain grants under cash-limited schemes.

Vote 31 — Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €1,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2009, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, including certain services administered by that Office, and of the Irish Land Commission and for payment of certain grants, subsidies and sundry grants-in-aid and for the payment of certain grants under cash-limited schemes.

Vote 34 — Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €1,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2009, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, including certain services administered by that Office, for the payment of certain subsidies, grants and a grant-in-aid, and for the payment of certain grants under cash-limited schemes.

Vote 37 — Army Pensions (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €7,200,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2009, for retired pay, pensions, compensation, allowances and gratuities payable under sundry statutes to or in respect of members of the Defence Forces and certain other Military Organisations, etc., and for sundry contributions and expenses in connection therewith; for certain extra statutory children's allowances and other payments and for sundry grants.

Vote 40 — Health Service Executive (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €254,000,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2009, for the salaries and expenses of the Health Service Executive and certain other services administered by the Executive, including miscellaneous grants.

Vote 41 — Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €1,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2009, for the provision of certain services in respect of children and youth affairs, including miscellaneous grants and grants-in-aid.

An Ceann Comhairle

In respect of the debate on these Supplementary Estimates, the speeches of the Minister and the spokespersons for Fine Gael, the Labour Party and Sinn Féin, who shall be called upon in that order, shall not exceed ten minutes in each case and the speeches of each other Member called upon shall not exceed five minutes in each case.

Deputy Willie O’Dea

Final Dáil approval is being sought for a series of Supplementary Estimates proposing net additional voted expenditure of €291.207 million in 2009. Nine of these Estimates were originally introduced into the House on 25 November. A subsequent technical Supplementary Estimate for the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs was moved on 1 December. All of these Supplementary Estimates have since been fully debated by the relevant committees. The majority of this additional expenditure relates to the justice group and the Health Service Executive and arises primarily from the higher than expected number of Garda retirements and a shortfall in health levy receipts coupled with other pressures in the health area.

Supplementary Estimates totalling €69.2 million have already been approved this year in respect of Vote 7 — superannuation and retired allowances — arising from additional costs associated with the incentivised scheme for early retirement; Vote 14 — the Director of Public Prosecution — for fees to counsel; and Vote 12 — the Secret Service. As a result, total Supplementary Estimates for 2009 amount to some €360.407 million, or just over 0.76% of total net voted expenditure outlined in the Revised Estimates Volume for 2009.

Each of the Departments requesting funding has, however, made efforts to achieve offsetting savings. In fact, the majority of the Supplementary Estimates before the House are technical in nature and do not involve additional moneys being transferred to Departments, but rather allow them to use these savings to balance pressures elsewhere in the Vote. Where additional moneys are required, they arise from exceptional circumstances which were unforeseen at the time the original expenditure allocations were voted upon by the House. While the members of the individual committees may already be aware of the reasons behind the Supplementary Estimates in their respective areas, I will take this opportunity to outline the proposed Supplementary Estimates to the House somewhat greater detail.

My colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, gave details of the Supplementary Estimate for Health to the Select Committee on Health and Children on 2 December last. A net Supplementary Estimate of €254 million for Vote 40 — the Health Service Executive — is being provided to fund the 2009 costs of €55 million arising from the swine flu pandemic; €73 million for increased superannuation costs; €70 million for pressures on demand-led schemes and to meet the costs of hospital services; and a net shortfall in receipts of €83 million. Notwithstanding the serious difficulties facing the public finances, the Government is committed to providing the necessary additional resources to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus.

There has been a higher than anticipated level of retirements this year due to a higher number than usual of employees with sufficient service retiring, even if they have not reached the compulsory retirement age. Payments in respect of these retirements have to be met this year.

The shortfall in receipts largely arises in respect of the health levy with a shortfall of €102 million, due to the unemployment trend. This is partially offset an increase of €37 million in respect of UK migrants.

An additional €25 million capital is also being provided to fund priority mental health projects. The funding is to help meet costs incurred for the commencement of the modernisation of mental health infrastructure in line with A Vision For Change.

The technical Supplementary Estimate in respect of the Vote 41 — Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs — is necessary to allow payments to take place under the new early childhood care and education scheme in this year's supplementary budget. The scheme comes into effect on 1 January and will provide free preschool education for young children.

As already indicated by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the main driver of the increase relating to the justice Vote group is Garda retirements, which are overrunning by some €35 million in the current year. Vote 20 — Garda Síochána — had funding to cater for approximately 400 retirements, which was deemed realistic given that the number of gardaí who retired in 2008 was 258. The actual number of gardaí who have retired to date is in the region of 800, or twice that estimated in the original allocation. I understand from my colleague, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law reform, that the reason for this dramatic increase appears to relate mainly to personal financial circumstances. Another contributing factor was the raising, in 2006, of the compulsory retirement age for members up to and including inspector rank from 57 to 60 years of age. This is now beginning to have an impact.

I reiterate what the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform said in his address to the relevant committee. While the amount sought in additional Exchequer funding is €15 million, the balance of the additional cost of these retirements is to be funded in this Supplementary Estimate through the use of surplus receipts and the reallocation of savings in other areas from within the justice group.

The technical Supplementary Estimate required for the Vote 19 — Justice, Equality and Law Reform — in order to bring the €12 million in surplus receipts above the line to meet overruns in the demand-led areas of criminal legal aid, the Irish naturalisation and immigration service and asylum accommodation.

The technical Supplementary Estimate is required for Vote 22, the Courts Service, to meet the increased day to day running costs of the Courts Service, including translation, interpretation and stenograph expenditure. While the Supplementary Estimate will result in an additional €6.8 million in surplus receipts being brought above the line, only €3.8 million of these surplus receipts will be used to meet the overrun on the courts Vote. The remaining €3 million is being used to offset in part the cost to the Exchequer of the increased level of Garda retirements.

The Department of Defence requires a Supplementary Estimate of €7.2 million for Vote 37, Army pensions. This amount is needed as the number of personnel leaving the Defence Forces and qualifying for a gratuity and pension is higher than had been anticipated when compiling the original Estimate. This trend is expected to continue to the end of the year requiring this additional allocation.

A shortfall of €1.3 million is projected for appropriations-in-aid. This arises from a requirement to refund pension contributions over-deducted from post-2004 enlisted personnel. Expected savings of €1.3 million will fund this shortfall. Regarding the technical Supplementary Estimate for the Department of Agricultural, Fisheries and Food, the principal measure is in the area of on-farm investments and the allocation of an additional €70 million to meet commitments under the farm waste management scheme. The additional funding is being provided from savings in the Vote and additional appropriations-in-aid.

The technical Supplementary Estimate for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is required to enable payments from the temporary employment support scheme subhead in 2010 as it is a new service. For the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, a technical Supplementary Estimate provides an additional amount of €2.38 million arising from a reconciliation exercise in respect of the receipts from the television licence fee and grants-in-aid paid to RTE, which found an imbalance dating back to 2000. Television licence fee receipts are legally ring-fenced for public service broadcasting. This additional payment will be met from savings within the Vote. The grant-in-aid nature of the subhead means that a technical Supplementary Estimate is required in line with procedures laid down under public finance procedures.

An additional €500,000 is required as a result of an increase in receipts for the petroleum infrastructure programme fund arising from an amendment to a frontier exploration licence. Each company holding a frontier exploration licence is required to pay an annual subscription to the petroleum infrastructure programme fund, which is directed at funding offshore exploration related research. These subscriptions are received in the Vote of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources as appropriations-in-aid and paid to the petroleum infrastructure programme fund from subhead E1. Under the amended terms of the frontier exploration licence, the Department has secured an additional €7.5 million over four years for the petroleum infrastructure programme fund, of which €500,000 is payable in 2009. A technical Supplementary Estimate is required in 2009 to facilitate the payment out of these additional funds to the petroleum infrastructure programme fund.

The Department of Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, under Vote 27, requested sanction for the virement of savings on certain subheads to meet a projected overspend of €1.3 million on the advanced Irish language skills subhead. As the projected additional expenditure would increase the original allocation in the subhead by approximately 137%, it is deemed prudent to proceed by way of a technical Supplementary Estimate. Savings that emerged under the rural social scheme, €1 million, and the Ciste na Gaeilge allocation, €300,000, are being used to fund the required additional amount of €1.3 million.

While Departments use savings achieved elsewhere to offset expenditure overruns where possible, the circumstances leading to the Supplementary Estimates before the House today could not have been foreseen during the framing of the 2009 expenditure allocations. They are necessary for the continued smooth running of public services and when coupled with savings on other Votes there should be no overall addition to total net voted expenditure outlined in the Revised Estimates volume for 2009. I commend the Supplementary Estimates to the House.

Deputy Kieran O’Donnell

I propose to share time with Deputy Michael Ring.

This is the eve of the most significant budget in the short history of the country. We are debating Estimates, some of which are revenue neutral, across a range of Departments. The Minister for Defence, Deputy Willie O'Dea, referred to a number of issues including Vote 30, dealing with the underpayment of €2.4 million to RTE in respect of licence fee receipts. The Minister described this as a reconciliation exercise but it seems to have taken nine years. My colleagues, including the Fine Gael spokesperson on this area, Deputy Simon Coveney, raised this matter at the Oireachtas committee meeting. Why did it take nine years for this reconciliation exercise to take place? This is listed as a debtor in the RTE accounts but the Exchequer accounts are done on a cash receipts and cash payments basis and this will have an impact of €2.4 million, affecting other areas of expenditure this year. If there was a dispute with RTE about licence fees in respect of social welfare recipients, why did it take this length of time and why did we not pay this sum when we could afford it? The Minister should clarify this.

The Minister made reference to Votes 19, 20 and 22. Vote 20 was altered to cater for approximately 400 retirements from the Garda Síochána. That figure has now doubled to 800. In the constituency the Minister shares with me, Limerick East, the number of inspectors has dropped from 11 in June of this year to five or six by the end of this month. This is a major issue because it is important to retain people with a wealth of knowledge about fighting crime. This applies throughout Ireland but I refer to Limerick because I am a Deputy for that constituency and the Minister has great knowledge about this and has spoken about the area. What does the Government intend to do to ensure that we do not lose more front line staff, particularly in policing and the Department of Defence?

The same group of Votes refers to a surplus of €12 million and relocating budgets to meet overruns in the demand-led areas of criminal legal aid and asylum accommodation. Comparing the current year to last year, some €50,000 more is spent every day this year on asylum-seeker accommodation, on top of €40,000 per day more in respect of 2008. What measures does the Minister propose to reduce the cost of asylum-seeker accommodation? Leave to remain applications take up to seven years to process. Fine Gael proposed a range of measures to deal with this issue and I ask the Minister to refer to them.

The temporary employment subsidy scheme under Vote 34 was announced in the last budget. It has not been successful and has not worked for employers who wanted to retain employees. It was extremely restrictive because it applied only to export-led businesses. I welcome the new scheme for which applications must be made by 23 December because it relaxes the criteria, but I am worried that it does not meet the requirements. We, in Fine Gael, have put forward two schemes, a workshare scheme under which we would pay two thirds of any wages that employees would lose by working reduced hours, to ensure that employers can keep them in place, and an internship programme under which people could combine academic work with work experience.

The various committees have discussed these Estimates at length. Why did the reconciliation leading to the €2.4 million payment to RTE take nine years? Why was it not paid during the good times rather than putting extreme pressure on other areas of expenditure in the current climate? What plans are in place to ensure that we do not lose front line people at the rate we are losing them from the Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces? How does the Government expect the second phase of the temporary employment subsidy scheme to work? Does it think that extending it beyond the export area will work? We must ensure that when budgets are brought in, targets are reached. How can the ordinary man understand why the €2.4 million settlement of the dispute between RTE and the Departments of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and Social and Family Affairs, for payments dating back to 1999, is being made now when every euro is needed in the economy?

Deputy Michael Ring

The savings of €1.29 million in the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs was taken out earlier in the year. There was an embargo on people who came off the rural social scheme and were not let on but then were at the end of the year, which is fair enough. That saved over €1 million which was used for the commitment to the Irish language, to put courses in place in the King's Inns and the Higher Education Authority. It was also saved by not paying the Christmas bonus to people on the rural social scheme, which is outrageous. People were depending on that funding this year but will not get it.

What will happen at Templemore where I am told there are no new recruits although many people have retired this year? In a few years' time we will have the problem we had a few years ago when the numbers were down. Gardaí will be taken out of rural areas and put into the cities and rural areas will suffer again. That worries me. I hope the embargo on recruitment to the Garda will be lifted immediately. We should at least keep recruits going into Templemore. Not to have them is bad policy because we will need gardaí and people will continue to retire. We will certainly need these recruits. I hope the Government will make a decision to bring recruits into Templemore.

Deputy Joan Burton

People will not pay much attention to these Estimates in the context of what they fear will happen to them tomorrow. It is interesting to consider the content of some of the Estimates, particularly for health which is one of the bigger ones, a large part of which covers changes because people are retiring early. Is it true that most of those retiring are in the nursing grades and that only 16% are administrators, of whom everyone agrees there are far too many between the Department and the HSE? Herein lies the problem. We all agree, across the House, that front line services provided by nurses, doctors, teachers and gardaí are important to sustaining society and our public services. These Estimates, however, show that these are the types of people who are leaving in large numbers because they feel extremely demoralised and fear what the future will bring if they stay on, and because their employer behaved with an unbelievable degree of incompetence in the recent negotiations.

I am aware that in the run-up to the one-day strike there was a degree of intemperate media coverage which sought to make scapegoats of staff working in public services as though they were the enemy of every small businessman, enterprise and private sector worker in the country. The Fianna Fáil backbenchers listened most to these attacks because many of them are the proprietors of small and medium-sized businesses and would naturally have that point of view, which is extremely hostile to the public service. It is a pretty cheap shot to make public enemy number one not of the bankers and developers who ruined the economy, and those who fostered the climate of greed, but of the doctor, teacher, nurse, garda and the serving soldier, each of whom is being treated as something to be cleansed from our society.

The private sector, like the public sector, has its good and bad points. Nothing is ever as black and white as Fianna Fáil would like to portray it. These Estimates show that the consequence of the budgetary decisions taken last year in the various emergency budgets and measures have resulted in a massive outflow of people from the public services. It was also clear in the negotiations which failed last week that there was another large squad of people in each Department waiting to take up a similar position. The mechanism which the public service unions had arrived at to find a bridging mechanism for 2010 with permanent savings through transformation thereafter would not have been like the fudge on benchmarking two.

In 2000, public sector wages cost approximately €9 billion. By this year they were up to €20 billion, largely because in a construction-driven boom while Charlie McCreevy was receiving lots of taxes he said, "When I have it I spend it". Money was thrown around to anybody with his or her hand out, which drove the housing and property bubble, all of which has collapsed disastrously.

While it may have seemed like a fabulous victory for the Lenihan wing, the neo-conservative view in Fianna Fáil, I suspect it will be a pyrrhic one because it is well worth fighting for the goal of a unified, efficient, reformed public service.

What has been highlighted already is that, for example, in most Garda stations and Garda districts throughout the country, the most important, senior gardaí have retired not just in ordinary numbers or in double the ordinary numbers, but to a degree that has to be extremely worrying for anyone who represents a constituency like mine or like the Minister, Deputy Willie O'Dea's, where organised serious criminality among dedicated, professional groups of criminals and paramilitaries is a fact of life.

What I fear is that the Government, as an employer, will now get the worst of all worlds from what has happened with the breakdown of negotiations. Senior, required staff in front line positions are now heavily incentivised, from a morale point of view alone, to leave and just say: "I have had enough. I am not going to deal with the fallout from this." The consequences of this is to go down the MacSharry road with regard to what happened to our health services in 1987. Leaving party politics out of it, everybody knows that while the MacSharry changes in 1987 achieved some good outcomes, they were a total disaster for the health services. In fact, they continue to this day to be at the core of some of the problems in the health services, resulting in the crazy stuff last year where the Minister, Deputy Mary Harney, offered consultants €240,000-plus a year on a consultant contract. Of course, most older consultants have jumped at this because they can now retire relatively quickly on a highly enhanced pension that somebody who has worked in the ordinary Civil Service for many years could only ever dream about. It has not quite brought them up to the level of judges but close to it.

It is difficult, in reading these Estimates, not to feel that this is a Government in its twilight months. All is chaos. Norms in regard to negotiation have been disregarded. Negotiation is always difficult and tough, and requires a lot of patience. We are historically in a post-Bertie Ahern era. He was perhaps too generous in negotiation, but he had the money to be generous and he decided to throw the money at it. That was a tactic and, for him, politically and for getting Fianna Fáil election results, it worked. That era is over. Our economy is pretty close to broke. The crazy part of what was done by the Government last week is that all of the parties in this House had agreed that the public pay bill needed to be cut, but that it could be done by agreement. Amazingly, from time to time, people in Fianna Fáil have spoken about Tallaght-style strategies. Here was a Tallaght-style strategy on offer, stating that if this could be done by negotiation, that was the way to do it.

I recalled in this House two weeks ago the two key points in the Northern talks — nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, and then we all jump together. Last week, we were on course for that kind of achievement. Now, it lines in ruins around us and I do not think it can be renegotiated until there is a change of Government because the Government is now bankrupt in terms of being able to deliver change.

Deputy Arthur Morgan

I welcome the opportunity to address the Estimates of receipts and expenditures. I do so more in hope than expectation because, unfortunately, the poor old Department of Finance has an atrocious record in terms of getting it right. It has got it wrong for some considerable time. In the good old days, it grossly underestimated the receipts and the opposite is the case since the downturn came. While I admit it is a major challenge for anybody to forecast accurately, to continuously to get it as wrong as the Department has done is some achievement.

I note the National Pensions Reserve Fund remains under some pressure. Of course, €7 billion of funding was wasted in recapitalising AIB and Bank of Ireland. This was a huge waste. The money went into the banks to recapitalise them and the expectation we all had was that the banks would begin creating a revenue stream for SMEs, with which Members from all sides of the House agreed. However, we are all hearing stories of viable businesses going to the wall because they simply cannot get enough funding to keep them turning over. The banks have not freed up credit. It would have been much better if the €7 billion, or at least a portion of it, had been put into a jobs stimulus package. We would have had more value from that than from what has happened.

Every Government measure seems to have depressed receipts. The increase in VAT in the budget of October 2008, which I accept was relatively small in that it increased from 21% to 21.5%, had a massive psychological influence in that people began going North in significant numbers. It is not just a coincidence that it is around this time that the exodus to the North commenced really seriously. I hope the Minister will adopt at least one of the measures we put forward in our pre-budget submission, namely, a decrease in excise on alcohol for the Christmas period. We hear figures today that some 48% of all off sales of alcohol consumed in this State are purchased in the North, which is scandalous. If the Minister reduces the level of excise on alcohol for the Christmas period, I have little doubt that it will massively enhance the Exchequer take here.

Alcohol is one of the key factors in people choosing to go North. To give one example, on Sunday last a football club was doing a bag-packing process in Sainsburys in Newry. One of the members of the club told me that three friends in their 20s from County Tipperary came through, saying they had heard of the prices in the North and decided to check them out. The first man had STG£490 worth of alcohol in his trolley, the second had over STG£500 worth and the third had approximately STG£380 worth. They had nothing else but alcohol — no other goods, sweets or confectionary of any kind. The men said the reason they had bought this amount was that when they arrived, they texted home to their friends to tell them deals were available and they were asked to get them whatever they could get.

Alcohol is one of the main motivating factors for people going North. I hope the Government takes the opportunity tomorrow, in the budget speech, to announce that it will reduce excise. It is not just about supermarkets, off licences or businesses along the Border corridor. It is right down as far as Clare and Cork, and the example I have given is a midlands county. We need to do something to stop the haemorrhage of business on one of the anchor products — alcohol. I am not encouraging the use of alcohol by any means. I am simply observing that we need to deal with this issue as alcohol is going to be consumed in any case, which we all know. It is just a matter of dealing with it. I hope that opportunity will be taken tomorrow.

What I would like to see in any event — the Minister will not be surprised at this — is harmonisation of taxes across the island, which would stop the seesaw effect we get, for example, in regard to diesel and petrol, which people come here from the North to purchase. There is no doubt the Border counties on the Southern side are enjoying something of a benefit in that regard. I hope we can get a position of stability so that this seesawing does not happen. It has closed all the Northern filling stations, but it is not that long since most of the Southern ones were closed.

I note that capital gains tax and capital acquisition tax are expected to fall. I have advocated in the Sinn Féin pre-budget submission that we increase the rate of capital gains tax from 20% to 40%. These are wealth taxes — they are not productive taxes — so there is no reason that we could not increase them from 25%, the current rate of capital acquisition tax.

Acting Chairman (Deputy Seán Ardagh)

We are discussing Supplementary Estimates, not the Estimates for 2010.

Deputy Arthur Morgan

I appreciate that but given the proximity of the budget, I felt it was important to take this opportunity to say that, given the connection between the two.

We all know there will be a substantial cut to the health and education budgets. Deputy Willie Penrose tried to raise the issue of the hospital in Mullingar under Standing Order 32. I sympathise with him and his constituents because Louth County Hospital is about to lose all of its acute medical services to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, a hospital that does not have the capacity for those services. This proposal will leave a catchment area with a population of more than 100,000 people without acute medical services, accident and emergency cover or intensive care services. It is completely unacceptable.

If we look at the Adjournment debate matters and matters raised under Standing Order 32, we can see how Members are continually pleading for school upgrades in most constituencies. It is most unfortunate that the Government has not taken the opportunity to invest some funds from the National Pensions Reserve Fund in a school building programme. That would kick-start the construction sector, get apprentices and tradesmen back off the dole and would give our children the opportunity to be educated in schools that are fit for purpose instead of in draughty, damp prefabs. It is unacceptable that opportunity is not being taken.

I hope that the Government collectively has listened to some of the voices on this side of the House because there is a cohesiveness on education and health. Provision should be made to give the people of the State those services. We cannot talk about a knowledge economy while failing to address these problems. When there is no adequate IT provision in schools, we will not develop a knowledge economy any time soon. If the Government is serious about this, it is time to deal with those issues and I hope it will do that.

Unfortunately, there will probably be a further rise in unemployment, particularly among the under 23s. There is not enough provision in the education system or jobs for them. What will they do? In many cases, unfortunately, they will be sent back to the emigration boat, a scenario from the 1980s. That is regrettable, given we have had almost a decade of significant income streams to the Exchequer. They were not used for proper, sustainable infrastructure, but spent willy-nilly so it is no wonder that we are in this difficulty.

Minister for Defence (Deputy Willie O’Dea)

I thank all Members who contributed.

Deputy O'Donnell also mentioned the importance of reaching our target. As I said, what we are providing for here, in total and including the earlier €69 million, is 0.75% of total net voted expenditure. I can recall budgets in this House where Ministers came in for Supplementary Estimates on the eve of the budget that exceeded that amount.

In the light of gardaí retiring, Deputy Ring made the point that it is important that gardaí are not moved from rural areas into cities. I could not agree more; I am very conscious of this. We have a phenomenon in my part of the country, and I am sure it is the same elsewhere, where people come out from cities and commit horrendous crimes against the rural population.

Deputy Morgan made a suggestion about excise duty. The Deputy will forgive me for not announcing parts of the budget in advance but he does not have long to wait to find out if his suggestion has been taken up.

Deputy Morgan also asked about increasing capital gains tax from 20% to 40%. I have news for the Deputy — it is no longer 20%. We increased it to 25% and the returns have dropped catastrophically. That trend would continue if we increased it to 40%.

Deputy Burton asked about the identity of retirees from the Department of Health and Children. I will have to get her the information on the different grades and the extent to which front line staff and administrative staff are involved.

Deputy Burton's interpretation of what happened last week is totally and absolutely at variance with the facts. I find it surprising to say the least. I was in the House last week when the original deal with the unions was mooted and the biggest cries of protest came from the Labour Party. Even when that deal has broken down and we are gone in the opposite direction, it is still protesting so we cannot win.

Deputy Burton also referred to victory for the Lenihan wing of Fianna Fáil. I am not aware there is any wings in Fianna Fáil. I am aware though that whenever the Labour Party happens to be in office there are two wings, one on the backbenches and the other on the Front Bench.

During the past year, the environment in which we operate has changed. At a time when we are experiencing such severe economic and fiscal challenges, it is even more important that our public services are organised and delivered in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible.

I commend the Supplementary Estimates to the House.

Votes put and agreed to.

Dáil Éireann debate - Tuesday, 8 Dec 2009

Estimates for Public Services 2009.

Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 8 Dec 2009