In this, my first speech to the House, I am conscious that this debate is about getting our political priorities right. It is a start to ensuring responsible control of the nation's financial affairs. There are many who would like to continue being spared the harsh reality of our foreign debts, our empty cupboard, who would prefer to distance themselves from the operations and affairs of the Exchequer. I believe that the fact that this Government initiated tough economic measures, almost before they had warmed the seats of this House, brought home to a majority of people the seriousness to them, their children, their communities of a country close to bankruptcy.
In the intervening time since last July, there has been a growing realisation of the reasons which motivated the Minister for Finance to introduce this supplementary budget. Mainly these reasons are to do with the fact that the last Government conducted the financial affairs of this nation like drunken spendthrifts.
In January last the Exchequer borrowing requirement was decided at £1,296 million of which £515 million was to finance the current budget deficit for the year. Only six months later — by the end of June almost all of this £515 million was borrowed — the actual figure was £457 million. Quite literally, the economy was so sick that it was haemorrhaging massively, and if not checked, the patient, in this case the Irish economy, would have bled to death.
May I suggest, with apologies to the housewives and mothers of Ireland, that if they handled their household affairs like the last Government, their children would be going around in tatters, hungry and miserable, and they would be "in hock" to the moneylenders? Unlike the previous administration, they would not be cavalier about it and dismiss their mismanagement with ear to ear cheer, as Fianna Fáil did.
It does not help for us to know the reasons for the overspending, and the fudged figures. For 18 months there was an election in the offing, and the old Fianna Fáil tactic of trying to buy people with their own money was to be tried yet again, except this time, they spread the bounty around before the election, instead of putting it in their manifesto. Voters, they rightly suspected, would not fall for the same trick twice from them. So, in the dying days of the last Government, all kinds of marvellous schemes were thought up, to be paid for with borrowed money, and despite the prudent advice of Deputy McCreevy, these schemes were foisted on an unconvinced public: "A new house? Here is £4,000 to ease the pain. A new sports centre? Go ahead, sign the contract, never mind the details". Fifty-five such schemes were approved by letter, although no funds existed to cover them. Irish people are human: if a promise seems attractive they are tempted to accept it. If a Government give the impression that we can live on the never-never, who is to blame the people if they also overspend?
And yet, despite all the spurious optimism and reckless spending, the people were not fooled. They realised that you cannot run a home, a business or a country indefinitely on the Kathleen Mavourneen system. They saw through Fianna Fáil's cloud cuckoo land of economic unreality, and opted for a Government which would have the courage to spend within our means, the means of the people, and to plan for the future.
Of course it is easier to borrow your way into trouble than it is to live within your means. But we all know that living within your means, and planning ahead, leads to a far greater sense of security. June 11 last could be regarded as the day the bubble burst for Fianna Fáil. That day showed that people are prepared to accept that small sacrifices are needed to secure our futures.
This supplementary budget marks the first essential step in this Government's phased economic programme. For my part, and I believe I reflect the thinking of a majority of people, I know that if Deputy Haughey's party now occupied these Government benches they would have had to introduce similar or tougher measures if they were not to continue to go abroad with the begging bowl. Is anyone outside their own party flock fooled by their protestations of innocence now?
Despite the perilous state of the economy when we took office, we gave an undertaking that there would be no further increases in 1981 in the price of specified key foodstuffs, namely, bread, flour, milk, butter and margarine. This provision is in recognition of the difficulty such price increases would cause to the weaker sections of our community. Furthermore, the Minister for Finance has announced the initiation of three schemes to deal with particular problems of the elderly and the young. These are the Community Care Task Force, aimed at improving the living conditions of the old, the Youth Employment Services Scheme, which will meet particular needs of the community, and the Youth Employment Enterprise Scheme, the purpose of which is to provide information and funding for young people with viable business proposals.
It is my experience that many people have expressed agreement with the July budget provisions and with the philosophy enunciated by the Minister for Finance. An even more significant feature of public reaction was the suggestion from many that our measures under this Bill did not go far enough. I feel this indicates a sharper understanding of the reality of national economics among the general public than they are generally credited with.
Let us make no mistake, it was neither an accident nor a stroke of fate that the electorate, given the choice of another term under the leadership of Deputy Haughey or a new start with Deputy Garret FitzGerald, voted as they did last June.
In addressing myself to Irishwomen I should like to record that over the years this House has seen a tiny number of Deputies who have taken a sincere interest in the needs and problems of Irishwomen. For the most part the rights of 51 per cent of the electorate have been virtually ignored. To an extent, women themselves are to blame for this. But then they accepted low expectations and played a passive political role in society, because our system moulded them to submit to a mystical and unreal image of what women should be rather than what women could be. There have been enlightened politicians in the past, but so far no one like the Taoiseach, Deputy FitzGerald, who did not merely talk about making politics and elections relevant for women: he actually encouraged their participation, and for the first time ever women's needs were given serious priority in an election manifesto in this country. It was a new beginning for us, because the sad reality is that since the birth of this State 60 years ago, successive Dáils stand indicted for their negligence and disregard for the needs of our female citizens.
Having said that, I do not intend in the future to spend my time here carping and complaining about the mistakes — and there have been many — of the past. My objective is to attempt, in a constructive way, to motivate Deputies by raising issues of fundamental importance to the daily lives and future of women and children and seeking their support for necessary changes.
Women as a group have a vested interest in seeing that our society is wisely managed. Our nation has the highest family dependency rate, the highest birthrate in the EEC, and, matched to this, we have a neglected record of development and planning in essential areas related to the needs of families. Just examine our fragmented community health programme. We do not have a comprehensive public health nursing service, we do not have a comprehensive family planning service, and our preventative and educational medical schemes leave much to be desired. One example I should like to give is of the important breast cancer screening technique of mammography which is available in other countries but is virtually unavailable for women here, even for diagnostic reasons.
This is in a country where the death rate from the disease is around 500 women per year. Furthermore, we do not have a structure of playschools to cater for what must be the largest population of small children in Europe. We cannot finance a meaningful retraining programme for women in mid-life. Above all, we need maternity hospitals where women, all women and not just the privileged few, can give birth with dignity. The list is endless, but all need money. Available funding is essential, and this in the long term can only be provided by proper economic planning and a sense of vision. I am glad a start has been made.
Now I should like to turn specially to the proposed stay-at-home-allowance which will be effective in the coming year. Some of the views expressed in this debate on that provision I have found to be utterly depressing. I respect everyone's right to hold and put forward their views, but opinions based on prejudice or ignorance should be seen clearly for what they are. And, likewise, the people who make them. To those Deputies I say: "Hands off the women's allowance; you do not speak for Irishwomen. Wives and mothers of this State came out with their prams and their toddlers on a wet day and put their approval on our proposed allowance on record. Do not treat them as nitwits, whose democratic choice is of so little value that it can be overruled in this House". This allowance is the first step to recognising the role and contribution of women in the home and as such is a response to years of campaigning by individual women and representative groups of women. Most Deputies can never realise what this modest sum will mean to many women. Whether we like it or not, society's measure of one's worth has always been in terms of financial recognition for work done. This allowance establishes the principle that women have rights to financial reward, the same as anyone else. I can assure those who may question the validity of this concept that there are mothers in this city—yes, even in the desirable suburbs—who would not on any day of the week have the price of a bus ride to town. This state of poverty is called financial dependence and represents the lowest form of humiliation to many wives. But I must emphasise that the welcome for this allowance goes far beyond the type of wife I have just quoted. Women out there are saying to us: "it is about time you got the message, now get on with the job".
To deal with the spurious argument that in implementing this proposal the State is interfering in the affairs of the family, I suggest that we put this into its proper context long ago. We heard the same pathetic defence back in 1973 when we had the debate on vesting rights to the children's allowance in the mother rather than the father. We also had it to a lesser degree when the Government were introducing measures—not that long ago—to protect women who were being battered in their own homes. It is worth noting, as many women have, the level of consciousness of contemporary Irish-women's role we found among the ranks of Fianna Fáil last June. Where else in the world, I question, would one find a political party taking large expensive advertisements in all newspapers to proclaim their sexual bias to the electorate? They said to women: "Your husband is the boss, he does the most important job of earning the income, you can lay no claim to that money". I will refresh memories of those advertisements for those who have forgotten: "Men, Fine Gael are making advances to your wife, and they are doing it with your money". Yes, Fine Gael have designs on Irish wives, but they address their remarks directly to the wives because we see a wife as a person in her own right. It is a sad fact that, if those advertisements are a true reflection of the thinking of the largest party in the land, then Irishwomen still have a steep uphill battle to win.
For most women the £9.60 per week, plus the increased weekly children's allowance of £3, represents the first step in an enlightened programme for women. It is a sound platform to be built on. For my part I will work to ensure that women are not disappointed, for I know they are watching this administration with hope and expectation. To be part of a Government who have a sincere commitment to social and legal reform is a joy to me; and to know that we have a determined policy to plan, and are prepared to take necessary though unpopular measures to ensure a prosperous future for all, men and women, is indeed a challenging experience for me, a new female Deputy.