I feel I should reply to some of the comments made by Deputy Gregory. I have listened carefully to his contribution. I find it difficult to understand why someone speaks in this House for 25 minutes without making one constructive suggestion in relation to what should be done. The Deputy has not observed the media comment on myself and others close to me in the last number of weeks if he thinks we have the power to influence the media in relation to either the headlines or what is put out in advance of the budget. I find a certain inconsistency and selectivity in the quotations used by Deputy Gregory.
I have had numerous meetings with the Conference of Major Religious Superiors. They have produced some excellent work which I have no difficulty in supporting. Deputy Gregory tends to be very selective in quoting from their deliberations and conclusions. He attacks the Government for not doing enough in relation to mortgage relief and then goes on to refer to other aspects of the conclusions of the Conference of Major Religious Superiors. But if he looked at some of their conclusions he would realise that they, in fact, have discussed and pointed towards the phasing out of mortgage relief completely, the taxing of child benefit and the phasing out of VHI relief. If Deputy Gregory is to be consistent he should present the reports in total rather than selecting the pieces that suit his point of view.
The Deputy also mentioned the Labour Party's commitments in relation to social welfare and mortgage holders. The whole question of social welfare will be dealt with in detail today by the Minister for Social Welfare and there will be no difficulty in seeing progress in relation to social welfare and promises made in that area.
The budget, which was presented to this House yesterday, represented a series of promises and commitments kept, in a context that required and demanded total management, hard decisions and shared sacrifices. In that sense it is a budget with which I am proud to be associated. It was not a radical budget. There was neither the time nor the room for that. This Government took office five or six weeks ago and since then it has had to grapple with a series of economic and other issues that were not of its making. Inevitably the first budget, and it is the first of several, had to be drawn carefully and prudently.
From the day this Government was formed it has operated against a background of turbulent economic conditions, nationally and internationally. The continuing European recession has been aggravated by the upheavals that have taken place in the financial markets. The task has not been made easier by the attacks of speculators on our currency. High interest rates have damaged our economy and created a great deal of hardship for families with mortgages. Above all, there has been the spectre of unemployment which has passed through the all-time historically high figure of 300,000 people. Behind that statistic lie, on the one hand, countless stories of human suffering and indignity and on the other, the need for far reaching and fundamental reforms of structures and policies to begin to turn the spiral downwards. In that context the news in relation to Digital this morning is a serious blow, not just to the city of Galway, but to the many families involved and indeed to the economy. It highlights the fragility of mobile investment. Hidden behind the statistics too is a story of disadvantage and inequality — of families in need of shelter, of children going to school cold and ill-equipped, of elderly people waiting patiently for hospital treatments they should have had months, if not years, before.
No Government, coming new to office, can ignore these stories. No Government, coming new to office, can ignore the need to tap into the commitment of its people to change. Above all, no Government, coming new to office, can ignore the demand for wealth and job creation throughout the economy.
This is the first of four budgets that will be presented to this House by this Government. Even though every subsequent budget will be more radical than this one, I believe it is already clear that this Government has not shirked the hard decisions. It is already clear that this is a Government that intends to keep its promises.
The budgetary discipline that we have imposed will ensure that the Exchequer borrowing requirement will be one of the lowest in the European Community this year — well within the range that satisfies our commitment to the Maastricht Treaty. At the same time, we have produced a public capital programme that is up by 20 per cent on last year, demonstrating a commitment to job creation and to steady improvement of the infrastructure of our economy.
We have asked for sacrifice in the budget — I do not deny that for one moment. We have ensured that, to the maximum possible extent, that sacrifice is spread across the community and borne by those most able to bear it and we have begun the task of eliminating disadvantage, starting by substantially improving the situation of a great many families in Ireland.
Above all, the commitment that this budget has made is that jobs are the number one item on this Government's agenda. No budget in recent years has provided anything like as much money for extra investment in jobs. I have no doubt that the great majority of our people fully recognise the need for such investment.
I have no doubt either that the people will willingly put their shoulders to the wheel in the effort to modernise our economy and infrastructure, position ourselves for further growth and wealth creation, and create jobs in the short and medium term.
The £500 million increase in the public capital programme will result in a whole series of major projects in roads, rail, housing, sanitary services, schools, hospitals, and communications. Coupled with this investment, the new county enterprise boards will spearhead an effort to unleash local dynamism and commitment, and to channel much better use of Structural Funds and the new Cohesion Fund in the creation of jobs and the improvement of the quality of life throughout our country.
Added to these measures, improvements in apprenticeship and training, together with targeted measures for people who are long term unemployed, and a range of incentives for people to invest in jobs, will make as big an impact as possible on our unemployment crisis.
I fully accept that we have a long haul if we are to bring our unemployment level down to anything like an acceptable level, and I have to say that those of us in jobs have to be prepared to accept some measure of sacrifice if we are to achieve that objective in a reasonable period of time. I believe that if the budget and the Estimates are taken together, any objective political commentator will recognise that most of the promises and commitments made, both during the election campaign, and in the Programme for a Partnership Government, have been honestly kept, despite the very considerable difficulties that the incoming Government faced.
Many of the specific measures to be found in the budget can be traced directly back to their origins in the recent election campaign. I make no apologies for concentrating on those commitments made by the Labour Party in the course of the recent campaign. The following are some of these measures: the resources available for income tax relief are being concentrated to ensure that those on low incomes will be protected; we have gone as far as we can to protect families with mortgages who have been hit by higher interest rates in recent months; the increase of 27 per cent in child benefit is the largest kind in many years, and it is the first phase of much needed reform in this essential area; the provision in the Estimates for 3,500 local authority housing starts, coupled with other spending plans in social housing, represents a complete reversal of policy in this area, and will enable us to make a very good start in redressing the housing crisis; basic rates of Social Welfare are being fully protected against inflation, and many of the measures in this budget will be of particular benefit to elderly people; as the details unfold, it will be clear that many of the cuts in social welfare of the last couple of years are being reversed— and even more work will be done in that area over the next few months; in the area of health care, a significant start is being made in attacking the waiting lists that have so damaged patient care in the past; the increase in the provision for mental handicap is the biggest such increase since the issue of mental handicap was rightly forced to the top of the political agenda; in both Estimates and budget, education spending has been increased to take full account of our determination to redress the growing disadvantage in the whole system, and to honour a series of important commitments; the budget featured the largest increase in Third World aid in many years, and has put us on course to meet a high international standard in this area. All these issues featured in the election campaign; all of them are dealt with in the Programme for a Partnership Government. Anyone who wishes can examine the manifesto we published in the campaign and they can examine the programme.
I have no doubt that an honest examination will show that to a degree that is perhaps unique in recent years, promises made then are being honoured now. There is much more to come over the next few years as the economy begins to grow and as we come more and more to grips with the issues of equality and justice that are an essential part of the reason we are in Government.
In the light of some of their recent utterances, an honest appraisal would be too much to expect from some of the Opposition parties. I have been astonished by the carping, the vilification, and the sheer dishonesty and hypocrisy of some of the Opposition benches since the Government was formed. Since this is my first opportunity to address it, I would like to take a few moments to refute some of the hypocrisy that has so diminished the Fine Gael Party in particular.
Much of their dishonest criticism has centred around the establishment of the Office of the Tánaiste, and the appointment of advisers to the Government. Let me set the record straight for the benefit of anyone who may have been misled by Opposition comments — the people on the Opposition benches already know what the true position is, even though they choose not to admit it. The Office of the Tánaiste was established, with the agreement of the Government, for one reason only — to monitor the Programme for a Partnership Government effectively and to help ensure that all of its commitments are delivered. It is there to assist in the delivery of a democratic programme, nothing more, and nothing less. It does not exist for the sake of my ego. The only egos in this place that need soothing are the battered and dishevelled egos that failed so totally to make any impact in the election and compounded that failure by the arrogant way they approached its aftermath.
The cost of running the office is made up almost entirely by re-allocating personnel from other Departments and not, as some would seek to pretend, by incurring extra expenditure. The only extra cost involved is made up by employing two or three people hired for their very particular expertise and I will refer to them in detail in a moment.
In other Departments, we have employed a number of advisers to assist in the process of delivery. The great majority of them, even when they are not civil servants, have come from other areas of the public sector and do not represent any significant additional cost. Some have come from the private sector and some have taken a cut in their private sector incomes to assist in delivering our programme. All of them are motivated by a high degree of public commitment and none of them deserves the vilification that has been heaped on them by some of the begrudgers on the Opposition benches.
The system of advisers, working side by side with committed, dedicated and able civil servants, was essentially pioneered in this country by Dr. Garret Fitzgerald. He knew the value of the system, particular in helping a Government commited to wide-ranging and fundamental changes, and I feel absolutely sure he must have cringed at some of the cheap and dishonest comments on the issue made by representatives of the party he once led with such distinction.
As far as my own position is considered, I want to deal with the suggestion of "jobbery" head on. I carry a fairly heavy work-load. That is well known. I am not complaining about that, it goes with a job that I am proud to do. For ten years, I have employed the same three people to help me with that work-load and to help me provide an effective level of representation to the people that I serve, both as a constituency TD and as Leader of a major political party. One, my sister, runs my constituency office and has done so since she resigned from the Department of Agriculture ten years ago to become my secretary. One runs my office in Leinster House, and another works as an adviser, researcher, and spokesperson for me. For ten years, they have worked as public servants, in the best sense of that term, and have been paid accordingly. They could stand before any forum and relate the hours of dedicated service they have given to the public, to me and the Labour Party for the past ten years. All of them are well-known to everyone associated with Irish politics and they are well known for their dedication, skill and commitment to their jobs. At no stage in the past ten years has any one of them been accused of being in receipt of political patronage and at no stage in the past ten years has the accusation of jobbery been levelled against me for employing them.
Now that I have become a member of the Government, I have no intention of firing these three people as some have indicated. I intend to continue to employ them because they do good work, serve a very wide community and public interest in the work they do and because they earn every penny of the salaries they are paid. Everyone who knows them knows that. That is is not "jobbery", it is good sense.
I want to tell the House quite frankly that I am determined to do a good job over the next four years and that I will need help to do it. I greatly value the advice and commitment of every civil servant who works for the Government and I greatly value having sources of independent advice too. I believe strongly that co-operative interaction between civil servants, all of them expert in their own fields, and other experts, with skills and day to day experience of a wider world, can only strengthen the contribution that this Government can make.
For that reason, I intend to employ expertise and to make no apology for doing so. In addition to the three people I have already mentioned, I am recruiting a top-class business manager, a leading and highly-respected economist and an expert lawyer and legal draughtsman to strengthen the Office of the Tánaiste and to make a a major contribution to the work of reform and change. All of them will be paid the rate appropriate to the job, all of them, will be worked hard over the next four years, and each of them, in his or her own way, will contribute to making Ireland a better place.
Before concluding, I wish to advise the House that as Minister for Foreign Affairs, I have responsibility for two Votes; Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation. With so many fundamental political and economic interests at stake, the need for an active, well-informed and effective foreign policy has never been clearer.
I am actively engaged in examining these issues, in close consultation with the people who represent Ireland so well around the world, and I am determined to ensure that our foreign policy, which has always been an expression of our independence and sovereignty, as well as our commitment to the community of nations, will continue to reflect values as well as interests. I am examining which of our bilateral relations needs to be strengthened, and how we in the Department of Foreign Affairs can contribute even further to the development of trade, investment and cultural links.
In so far as possible, however, we are determined to ensure that new challenges are met within existing resources and the 1993 budgetary allocation reflects this.
It would be remiss of me not to say a few words about the continuing tragedy of Northern Ireland in this context. I will not, however, go into detail here, since I intend to address the whole subject of Northern Ireland at some length in the next week or so. For the moment, let me refer to the proposals in relation to the establishment of the Foreign Affairs Committee in so far as they concern Northern Ireland. I know that there has been some adverse reaction to the seeming exclusion of Northern Ireland from the deliberations of the committee. It is not my intention that Members of the Oireachtas should be precluded from putting forward views and ideas or debating issues in relation to Northern Ireland, but Members must accept and realise that there are sensitive issues involved and that there will be times when it is simply necessary, and in everybody's interest, that matters relating to Northern Ireland be dealt with on the basis of total confidentiality. Subject to that understanding, I am prepared to examine ways and means of dealing with the reservations expressed by Members in regard to the terms of reference of the Foreign Affairs Committee.