Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 3 Dec 1998

Vol. 497 No. 7

Financial Resolutions, 1998. - Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed).

Debate resumed on the following motion:

THAT it is expedient to amend the law relating to inland revenue (including value-added tax and excise) and to make further provision in connection with finance.

—(Minister for Public Enterprise)

Mr. Durkan

At the adjournment I was about to illustrate the areas the Government seem to have forgotten in the budget. There are approximately 50,000 extra people in this country who are of economic import and have a huge beneficial economic impact. This is the number of returning emigrants who have jobs in Ireland, particularly in technological areas. The result of this is that they need houses.

It is rather peculiar that at a time when the Government should be able to plan for the next five years, it completely ignored the existence of such people and that they need housing. The Government should have included some benefits in the budget which would have given such people an indication that their plight had been recognised by those in power. This did not happen. It is ridiculous for the Government to crow that it has increased last year's local authority housing allocation by 20 per cent. That means nothing.

There is no sense in referring to what took place here two, three, four or ten years ago. We must recognise what is happening now. There are about 50,000 people on various waiting lists. The Minister would do well to listen carefully as there is a price to be paid for not listening. Unless the Government does something about this in the course of the year, we will have the ridiculous situation of people emigrating because they cannot find a house — unless people live in trees which will happen unless the Government does something.

What can the Government do? It can provide more local authority accommodation which looks after one part of the market. About 55,000 to 65,000 people are receiving rent assistance or are registered, by one means or another, as in need of housing. There is no sense in the Government saying the family structure has changed and it cannot cater for that. We have a duty to cater for it and it must be catered for now. There was a daft example in my constituency in the last year where a husband and wife earning £20,000 per year were living in caravans. This is completely wrong.

The Government needs to look at itself in the cold, hard light of reality. While the budget may have been good from a public relations point of view, with £3 given to the old age pensioners, £3.50 to the adult dependant, etc.

Mr. Broughan

Do not forget the betting tax.

Mr. Durkan

That was good PR. However, many people have serious problems which are not being addressed.

It was suggested that in the coming year, the number of housing starts will be in the region of 4,000 or 5,000. I do not know what kind of mathematics the Government used. However, if one stretches it any way one likes, one does not have to be an Einstein to figure out the housing requirement will not be met in ten years, at the present rate. The Government has completely underestimated the impact of the increasing population. That has been the case last year and this year. Last year the budget concentrated totally on the upper income groups and they decided on a huge give away in that area. I said at the time that if it succeeded, it would be the first time.

A factor to which little recognition has been given is that inflation has risen considerably in the past 12 months. The rate of inflation has almost doubled. It is a serious problem. This is the country with the highest inflation rate in the euro zone. It has risen by 30 per cent. The Minister for Education and Science must be alarmed.

Mr. Martin

I am alarmed at the inaccuracy of the statement.

Mr. Durkan

The Minister does not want to hear these facts.

In this budget nothing has been done to address the housing needs of the people in the average income area, with the exception of a tax concession which works out at about £6 per week net. There are serious problems to be addressed in that regard about which the Government does not know or care. I will leave that up to the Minister.

Education has been much talked about in this House in recent years. It is true that in the past investment was made in the educational sector in a way which paid dividends over a long period. It is imperative that Government takes account now of the investment needs of education ten, 15 or 20 years down the road. I have not seen evidence of that. In fact, the evidence to date is that the number of teachers in certain towns and villages is being reduced in line with the decline in the number of children. The Department of Education and Science sees that as an opportunity for reducing the number of teachers and redeploying them. The Minister needs to look again at that policy. The dividend to be reaped is not a positive but a negative one.

I do not wish to lecture the Minister on educational issues but I regard myself as being reasonably capable of recognising what is happening around me and of listening to what I hear from teachers and parents. There needs to be a careful evaluation of the areas deemed to be disadvantaged, both urban and rural, with a view to ensuring that the educational requirements of the people of those areas is being met fully, and that the children from those areas have a reasonable chance of having their further educational needs met and a chance of employment at later stage. That is not being addressed.

There are still plenty of schools which are substandard in terms of their facilities, the number of prefabs, the number of children who are confined within a narrow space, and the failure to comply with health and safety requirements and fire regulations. I do not wish to burden, upset or annoy the Minister with this unfortunate litany but his reaction does not worry me.

Mr. Martin

It is a terrible indictment of the Deputy's Government.

Mr. Durkan

No. The Minister needs to recognise that his party was also in Government before. He should not blame somebody else. He must accept responsibility at some time for something.

I cannot understand how a budget could have come before this House with so little emphasis on health requirements. Perhaps the Minister for Health and Children had been put in a trance by the Minister for Finance, the rest of the Government or somebody else. He certainly must not have been concentrating on what was happening. He continually falls into the same trap into which the Minister for Education and Science fell a moment ago, referring to what was there last year and an increase of perhaps 10 per cent or 20 per cent. He is forgetting that the demands have increased and he is not preparing for the requirements of today or tomorrow. It is difficult but I feel sorry for the Minister for Health and Children because he must surely begin to recognise that he is surrounded by people who do not have his best interests at heart, namely his Government colleagues. They have let him down, they have failed to recognised his existence. The long waiting lists are getting longer and the miserable amounts of extra money provided in the Estimates this year are totally inadequate to deal with the requirement. I need not evaluate the various needs in the health area. The Minister for Education and Science knows full well about it from his constituency. I spent a little time in that area recently and I was appalled at the health needs there. I presume he is shocked that I should say that to him but if he is not aware of the problems, then I have even more serious worries.

Mr. Martin

What shocked me was that Fine Gael did little for Cork.

Mr. Durkan

The Minister is in power. It may well be that he has drawn one conclusion from my short sojourn, with several of my colleagues, in his constituency. There was a message in it for him also. If he has not figured it out at this stage, then that bodes ill for him and his colleagues.

Mr. Martin

Bí ullamh.

Mr. Durkan

We are ready at all times. He should not assume that the budget will see him through an election campaign.

As someone who spent 16 or 17 years as a member of a health board and a short time as Opposition health spokesman, I see serious problems in terms of the failure to address requirements in the health area. It relates to the increased need arising from the growing population. Everybody talks about the changing demography but there are other factors. There is an increased need for services in the hospital and caring areas and for medical services generally and that need is not being met. That is why there are 3,000 or 4,000 or 5,000 on waiting lists all of the time. It is unfair that people should have to wait a year, two years or three years. The Minister seems stunned that people should have to wait for two or three years but it is a fact. It is a sad reflection on a country which is supposed to be the breeding ground of the Celtic tiger. I am amazed that no recognition was given to this factor in the preparation of the budget because there is no chance that the kind of moneys made available will address the problems of waiting lists and the needs of carers for people who have physical or sensory disabilities. One can get little relief for £200 — it amounts to a couple of days. I do not know whether the Government is trying cod itself or cod the rest of us but somebody is being codded. The Government is far short of identifying the market and meeting the needs in that area. I respectfully suggest that somebody as a matter of extreme urgency should look carefully at the hospital bed requirements and the care requirements, that is institutional care, respite care and back up for carers.

These areas need to be looked at individually and collectively and a package needs to be put together which will provide some degree of hope for people. We must acknowledge that society is changing. People who previously became dependent, docile, remained at home. We now have an enlightened society and people who want to participate, to get out and help themselves and others. There is no reason the Government should not be prepared to do that. I would give this budget one out of ten in this area — a bad performance. In fairness, I hope the people give the Government time to improve in this area. God help it if it intends to improve in ten years time because it will be long gone.

I would like to introduce the issue of child care which I know is an embarrassing one and where a great deal of expectation and hype was created. While on the other side of the House I listened to lectures from this side on how imperative it was to address that issue. That was two years ago. I thought those who gave those lectures knew what they were talking about and would do something about it when they got into Government, which they did not expect to happen.

Now they are in Government they seem to have lost their way and do not intend to address the issue which required such attention in the past. What is the problem? Will another review group spend a few years looking at the issue after which time they will get another election out of it? I would not depend on getting another election out of it. The people can get very volatile on such issues and are annoyed about it at present.

The reason for this change is that people's lifestyles are changing and more people are going out to work. With the price of houses, they will have to go to work well into the future. It is imperative from the point of view of the Government relating to the people, that it acts instead of taking all the glory for what it sees as the positive elements in the budget. It should address that issue.

Agriculture does not feature very high on the agenda under the present Administration because it did not feature very much in the budget. It provided nothing for the food producing sector which is in serious danger and threatened with extinction. I assume someone in Government was inspired and said the best way to treat that problem is to ignore it because that is what happened in the budget. No recognition was given to agriculture in the budget. I presume the Government has decided agriculture does not have a future because it is not adopting a positive attitude to it.

I often wonder what way a Government operates. I have come to the conclusion it operates on the basis of a decoy in that it flies a kite to distract people's attention from the real issues. I am not sure what the decoy is in this case. A week ago much attention was given to rejoining the Commonwealth. Does that not conjure up great images for Fianna Fáil? I can imagine the grandson of the former leader and founder of the party all dressed up at the Court of St. James returning to the fold. I can imagine the assembled multitudes there and the grins on their faces. What a shock it would be for the unfortunate people in the Court of St. James. Worse still, the poor Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Deputy O'Dea, would have to dress up in full regalia with silk and satin pantaloons and all the trappings which go with it as he enters the court. I look forward to that day and would like to be a fly on the wall to see what it would be like. What about the poor Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Cowen? Imagine the humiliation of having to enter the court in that garb.

I would like to have seen some reference in the Budget Statement or the Financial Statement for the year of the Government's intentions as regards the Commonwealth and its future relations with it. I recall when there was a certain antipathy towards the Commonwealth from that quarter. Perhaps the budget was the decoy and the Commonwealth was the real issue, or maybe it was the other way around. Perhaps the Commonwealth was the decoy to deflect people's attention away from a budget which recognises some people but refuses to recognise the needs of a large group of people who are looking to Government for support, particularly those in the housing, education, health and agricultural areas.

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. Martin)

May I share my time with Deputy Foley?

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

Is that agreed? Agreed.

Mr. Martin

I enjoyed Deputy Durkan's contribution, but I assure him there was no need for a decoy in terms of this budget. We want people to focus on it because it is perhaps the most historic budget in a long time, particularly in terms of personal taxation. It is an historic, reforming and radical budget, as most objective commentators described it, particularly on the tax front where a significant change has taken place. The move towards tax credits will be more egalitarian and will facilitate future Governments in targeting resources in a more effective manner, particularly at those on low incomes.

I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the Minister for Finance on an outstanding budget, for using the opportunity well to effect radical change on the tax front, for bringing in a comprehensive social inclusion package which embraces health, education and social welfare and for keeping strong fiscal control over the situation and moving to reduce the national debt in a substantial way. Future generations will pay tribute to the Minister for that particular initiative because it gives us sustainability over the years in terms of social progress and the many social inclusion programmes we are promoting. If times get bad or if there is reduced economic growth, it will be better to have to pay back less in debt repayments on an ongoing annual basis. That is perhaps the best guarantee of keeping our social services in tact and of growing them on a gradual basis. In terms of the health budget, I refute Deputy Durkan's remarks. There has been substantial investment in health which will facilitate considerable investment in the waiting list initiatives.

I take this opportunity to outline to the House the impact of the budget on education policy, particularly in terms of educational disadvantage. The issue of educational disadvantage was mentioned by the Minister and I am pleased to outline the details of the extra resources available to tackle educational disadvantage over the next two years.

On top of the Estimates volume published last month, yesterday education was allocated an additional £10 million in 1999 and £19 million in the year 2000 specifically to target educational disadvantage. This funding, combined with the other extra funding already provided for in the Book of Estimates, means I am in a position to announce a total of £57.2 million in new expenditure targeted solely at disadvantage over the next two years.

This is a comprehensive plan which far outstrips any comparable allocations previously provided. I will outline the details of the initiatives which this extra funding will enable us to implement. I hope to be able to add further to this package in the context of future budgetary discussion. As a result of this extra funding, 450 new teachers will be appointed effective from next September, split evenly between first and second levels. They will all be used to address issues of educational disadvantage.

While other allocations have yet to be decided, two priority areas will be addressed. Every school at primary and second level will have a remedial teaching service available to it from next September. Every disadvantaged school at first and second level will have a home-school community liaison service available to it from next September. A total of 225 new primary teachers will be appointed as a result of this programme. In addition, extra funding will be provided to schools for part-time teaching hours. These extra teachers are separate from the demographic dividend for 1999, which will be allocated during next year.

From next September a remedial teacher service will be available to all primary schools. All schools currently without a service will receive a service in line with the recommendation that each teacher should deal with approximately 30 pupils in need of the service. Mainstream schools with a pupil teacher ratio of below 10:1 and which currently have no service may apply for a service where they can demonstrate the needs of their pupils.

Home-school-community liaison teachers provide a valuable service in many schools serving disadvantaged areas. The allocation of additional teaching posts as part of this programme, shared in the case of smaller schools, will ensure that every disadvantaged school will have access to this service from next September. That service was established by the former Minister for Education, Deputy O'Rourke, in 1991. It was not consistently supported over recent years with the result that there are still many disadvantaged schools without a home-school liaison service. We must get the fundamentals right in terms of tackling educational disadvantage. The home-school liaison programme is one of the key programmes to do that, in conjunction with the remedial service.

A total of 225 new second level teachers will also be appointed as a result of this programme. Combined with a significant change to the manner of dealing with over quota staffing in secondary schools, these new teachers will enable the move towards the provision of an automatic remedial resource in all schools and home-school-community liaison in all disadvantaged schools.

The new package will be resourced by allocating an additional teaching provision to schools which are within quota and lack the appropriate remedial and home-school provision. In the case of schools with over quota teachers who might otherwise be re-deployed, this resource will be utilised in the first instance to meet the remedial and home-school needs of the school.

Following the implementation of the above package, some schools will have on their staff over quota permanent teachers. In deciding on whether these teachers come within the redeployment scheme, a ratio of 18:1 will be utilised. The impact of this is that schools will be allowed to retain teachers who might otherwise have been placed on the redeployment panel. This will give schools greater certainty in relation to the utilisation of these permanent teachers pending the occurrence of retirements.

I have already announced the major package of automatic entitlements for many children with disabilities. This package, which will cost £8 million over the next two years, deals comprehensively with resource teaching and child care assistance. It is now intended to go further and to provide for escorts and safety harnesses for all children with disabilities travelling on school buses. This move will cost £3.4 million in the next two years. I cannot believe this funding was not provided in recent years for children with disabilities travelling on school buses. It should have been done a long time ago and I am glad this budget has provided the resources to enable us to do it. I am also glad the budget provided an additional £50,000, over and above that provided for in the published Estimates, for the Association for Children with Learning Difficulties which does such effective work for children with dyslexia throughout the country.

The Government has placed a high priority on the establishment of a national educational psychology service. This service will play a vital role in helping to identify the special educational needs of children. Some £1.5 million is being allocated for the establishment and initial staffing of the service over the next two years. This is in line with the recommendations made by a steering committee which I established last year to report on the feasibility of establishing a national educational psychology service. It recommended the appointment of 30 psychologists per annum over the next four years to meet the needs throughout the country. This funding will meet those needs over the next two years.

To help schools in disadvantaged areas to more effectively meet the needs of their students, an initiative will be put in place to assist them in developing the school plans and to provide for additional support for teachers. This will cost £2 million over the next two years. The feedback from many of the pilot projects introduced, such as Breaking the Cycle and Youthstart, shows that the key issues, apart from pupil-teacher ratios, are planning and in-service for all teachers in schools. We must provide comprehensive resources for teachers and schools, particularly designated disadvantaged schools, so they can plan their approaches and strategies properly.

An effective programme in substance abuse education for primary schools has already been piloted. This should now be introduced into all primary schools and, as a result, I am providing £1 million for this purpose. Some £400,000 is being provided for the purchase of equipment for special needs teachers.

The Government's full policy on early education will be contained in a White Paper which I will publish next year. I have already received the report of the National Forum for Early Childhood Education which I established earlier this year. For the first time ever in the history of the State, we brought all the various players together under the one roof. As a result, we have a comprehensive report which will lead to the publication of a White Paper. In the interim, I will provide £1.2 million for special initiatives on early education. It is intended that these will focus on early education for children with disabilities.

It is a key policy aim of mine to increase the number of traveller children benefiting from education provision. I have already established a representative group to advise me on this area. As an encouragement to second level schools to meet the needs of local traveller children, a new capitation payment similar to that available at primary level will be introduced from January. This will cost £300,000 over the next two years.

Increasing the number of children who complete the senior cycle is a key policy objective of the Government. On top of already announced initiatives, special targeted interventions in areas with particularly low completion rates will be implemented. Some £1.5 million has been allocated for this purpose. The Department has undertaken considerable research in this area. We know where the retention rates are low and where there is a need for specific targeted intervention in areas of educational disadvantage to increase the retention and completion rates in those second level schools.

The high level of functional illiteracy among adults is of major concern to the Government. Having doubled funding for literacy programmes in 1998, a further £3.2 million has been allocated for the next two years. Last year there was a £2 million increase on the £2 million already available. Comprehensive funding is now being provided for adult literacy. In addition, we are providing £1.6 million for new part-time options in Youthreach and VTOS programmes to facilitate both young people and adults, who are outside the mainstream system, to return to education on a modular or part-time basis to secure badly needed qualifications.

A number of innovative capital projects focused at areas of significant disadvantage will be funded over the next two years. The details of these projects, which will cost £7 million, will be announced in the coming months.

Total additional funding of £6.9 million will be allocated over the next two years to tackle issues of educational disadvantage in third level. This will have three key elements. Some £1.5 million will be targeted at addressing the issue of non-completion of courses in important parts of the third level system. This problem is believed to be particularly experienced by students from disadvantaged backgrounds. We will work with third level institutions to plan the appropriate strategies and to make the relevant resources available so that we have an impact on attrition rates in third level.

Some £2.4 million will be provided to fund an extension of the maintenance grants scheme so that all independent mature students will now qualify for the higher, non-adjacent, rate of grant from the next academic year. That is an important initiative for mature students. It was an anomaly and a discrimination which was there for some time and was creating an obstacle to independent mature students returning to third level education.

Some £3 million will be allocated to promote access to third level among students from disadvantaged backgrounds, including people with disabilities. This programme will have an impact in terms of added supports and initiatives which some third level institutions have already embarked upon by encouraging second level students in disadvantaged areas to enrol in and become familiar with third level programmes. We will also increase hardship funds in a number of institutions.

Within the next ten days, I will announce the details of a once-off special initiative in the area of educational disadvantage which will cost £6.5 million. As an essential part of the implementation process, my Department will put in place a new co-ordination structure to ensure the effectiveness of our initiatives on educational disadvantage. This package represents the largest ever concentrated funding for tackling educational disadvantage. It comprehensively covers areas from early education to adult literacy and will put major resources into employing more teachers, the most important educational resource available. I pay tribute to Deputy McCreevy who has made a huge commitment to education since his appointment and made possible many major initiatives over the past 15 months by the provision of substantial resources.

This began with the educational and technology investment fund of more than £250 million. There have also been a number of significant increases in the primary capital programme which now stands at £55 million, it was £27 million in 1997. The Minister increased the second level capital programme to £60 million this year, compared with £33 million in 1997. Likewise, two weeks ago we announced an historic research and development package totalling £180 million which will put Ireland at the cutting edge of research and innovation and have a significant impact on economic competitiveness. There is also a significant investment package in educational disadvantage over and above many of the other initiatives I announced in terms of investment in education.

Through the extra allocation of funds, combined with the resources allocated in the Estimates, this budget goes a long way to meeting many of the needs within the education system. I acknowledge that we will continue to have some distance to travel. However, most objective analysts would agree that the Minister for Finance has shown a genuine and sincere commitment to education in terms of the priority he has given it and through the provision of resources.

Mr. Foley

I thank Deputy Martin for sharing his time. I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. This is a positive and progressive budget which will build for the future. The principle aims of the budget are: to sustain a viable economy; to effect major personal tax reform and to plan for the longer term. As the Minister pointed out, he is the first Minister for Finance in more than 50 years to bring in an overall budget surplus and he has availed of the opportunity to benefit those who have not done as well as most in recent years, particularly the old and the low paid.

In delivering fairness, the Minister did not abandon prudence. The world economy is in a volatile state and the open nature of our economy and the high level of foreign investment are reminders that economic booms do not last forever. Our success should not blind us to the fact that we still have a large national debt. For this reason, it would be foolish not to use this opportunity to reverse our habit of adding to that debt year after year.

In last year's budget the Minister announced substantial increases in personal social welfare rates for older people. In this budget he announced an increase of £9 per week for a couple in receipt of an old age pension. This will comprise an increase of £6 per week in the full personal rate of old age pensions and £3 per qualified adult. As a result, the weekly payment to a couple over 66 years of age and in receipt of a contributory old age pension will increase to £148.90, an increase of £15.50 in two budgets.

Other personal social welfare rates will be increased by £3 per week and qualified adult allowance will be increased by £2 per week. Additional increases are being provided on personal rates for those in receipt of short-term unemployment assistance and supplementary welfare allowance. From next September, child benefit rates will be increased by £3 per month for the first two children, and by £4 for the third and subsequent children. These increases will result in payments of £161 for families with four children.

The carers allowance scheme is being improved. An additional payment of £200 will be paid each year as a contribution to respite care and the free telephone rental allowance will be extended to all recipients. The scheme will be extended to cover carers of children in receipt of domiciliary care allowance. Members are aware of the representations made on this issue over recent years and I welcome these new measures.

The scope of this scheme will be extended to include recipients between 16 and 65 years of age who are in receipt of a qualified social welfare payment. The absolute requirement that carers live in the same house as those being cared for will be modified, as will the full-time care and attention conditions. This is a step in the right direction. We have seen cases where people caring for old people were living next door or close by. Hopefully, this will now be modified.

The weekly income limits for family income supplement, a valuable support for families in low paid work, will be increased by £8. Many farm incomes have been badly affected by bad weather and falling prices. The budget is providing for a revamping of the smallholders unemployment assistance scheme at a yearly cost of, approximately, £15 million. Full particulars will be included in the 1999 Social Welfare Bill.

An additional £25 million has been allocated for on-farm investment programmes and £110 million was made available for headage payments next year. There has also been an allocation of £2 million to allow for the reopening on the installation aid scheme. This is welcome as many young farmers were looking forward to the extra money which would help them.

The Government has made £10 million available to deal with fodder difficulties being experienced by some farmers. The details of the scheme are being finalised by the Department of Agriculture and Food. Payments will be directed at sheep farmers with mountain grassings, suckler cow producers and small dairy farmers in the worst affected areas based on a Teagasc survey published in September.

At present, more than 7,000 farmers are in receipt of £33 million annually under the smallholders assistance scheme available to all farmers on low incomes. The Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs will intensify its information initiatives at local level to increase awareness of the scheme and to emphasise its applicability to farmers. In addition, the scheme is being examined with a view to increasing its relevance to farming families. In this context, due account will be taken of the difficult income situation on certain farms arising from weather and market-related conditions.

Direct income payments accounted for 48 per cent of agricultural income in 1997. These payments play a significant role in supporting farm incomes and will do so again in 1998. This is sometimes forgotten when comparisons are made with previous difficulties in agriculture. The fact that the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Walsh, secured Commission agreement to the advance payment of 80 per cent of the suckler cow and special beef premia in 1998, will provide a significant boost to direct payments this year.

Already in 1998, outstanding progress has been made in delivering payments to farmers. Some £653 million has been paid under the various headage and premium schemes, of which £353 million relates to payments made under the 1998 schemes. Payments under REPS and the early retirement schemes amount to £108 million and almost £50 million, respectively, so far this year.

The charter of rights for farmers sets very specific targets for the payment of grants under headage and premium schemes. It is the Government's intention to meet those deadlines in 1998.

Live exports from Ireland to EU and third countries are vital to maintaining competition in the cattle trade and sustaining farm incomes. The seasonality of the livestock trade in Ireland makes market access for live exports particularly critical during the back end of the year when large numbers of weanlings come off farms. Deputy Walsh is to be congratulated for consistently recognising the importance of promoting live exports and has delivered in a number of areas to ensure market access for our cattle to EU and third country markets.

The availability of shipping services to transport cattle and other livestock to export markets is a critical factor and it is worth recalling the difficulties experienced in 1997. The VAT rebate is being increased from 3.6 per cent to 4 per cent from 1 March 1999. The rate change will ensure that farmers continue to be compensated in full for the VAT they bear on their business inputs. The change will be worth almost £11 million in a full year.

The general stock relief for farmers which is set at 25 per cent per annum without clawback is due to expire on 5 April 1999. It is being renewed at the same level for a further two years to 5 April 2001. The stock relief for young trained farmers which is available at 100 per cent without clawback for a two year period to qualifying farmers is due to expire on 5 April 1999. It is also being renewed for a further two years to 5 April 2001. Both measures will cost £1.5 million in a full year.

The measures to re-open farm investment schemes are on top of a net increase of 19 per cent for agriculture in the Book of Estimates for 1999 which includes a significant increase in the REPS allocation which is increased by 21 per cent to £176 million in 1999 and the reopening of the control of farmyard pollution, dairy hygiene and installation aid schemes. In excess of £40 million is being allocated to farm investment schemes next year.

The Minister said:

All these measures taken together acknowledge the key significance placed by the Government on our largest indigenous industry. This high level of support will help restore confidence among the farming community after what is accepted as a very difficult year for the sector.

Capital spending of £15 million has been allocated for the provision and upgrading of FÁS training and community enterprise facilities in areas of urban unemployment, bringing the total to £21.7 million this year.

In recognition of the forthcoming UN International Year of Older Persons, the income guidelines used to establish qualification for medical cards for persons aged 70 years and over will be doubled over the next three years, beginning with an increase of one third in the coming year. The Government is providing £1.5 million for the development of youth services on top of the published provision of £13.3 million.

In view of the difficulties many people, especially those on low incomes, are facing in relation to housing, local authority and social housing programmes were set at £269 million in 1999. This is an increase of £45 million or 20 per cent on this year. The increased funding will allow 600 extra local authority starts to bring the number of units to 4,500, the highest level of local authority houses since 1986. A special allocation has been made available to local authorities for hostels for the homeless by raising the £2 million already allocated to £4 million from the previous year's Estimate. An extra £3 million has been provided for the disabled person's grant which will bring the spending on this scheme to £8.5 million next year.

I also welcome the changes in tax allowances. The single person's rate will now be increased from £3,150 to £4,200, the married person's allowance from £6,300 to £8,400 and the PAYE allowance from £800 to £1,000. The changes in these allowances will result in a standard rate personal allowance for a single person on PAYE of £5,200. This is a very welcome change. Other budget features include the removal of more than 80,000 taxpayers from the tax net and the reduction of the number of taxpayers on the marginal relief system from the current level of 82,000 to just over 24,000. The budget changes mean that an individual will pay no tax on any income below £100 per week.

This budget is a landmark one in Irish history. It marks a fundamental departure in the area of personal taxation. A major step has been taken towards a full tax credit system. The changeover will be completed in the Minister's future budgets.

The back to work allowance scheme will be increased by 2,000 from 27,000 to 29,000 and there will be special pilot schemes for the very long-term unemployed. There will be 1,000 additional ring-fenced places on back to work schemes. FÁS will provide 1,500 special places to give basic skills to long-term unemployed people. A sum of £15 million will be provided in 1999 and £10 million in the year 2000 for training infrastructure. The job initiative element of community employment schemes for people who have been unemployed for more than five years will be given 875 extra places. This will cost £9.8 million in a full year. The special exemption from unemployment benefit taxation for systematic short-time workers is to be continued. Public-private partnerships are to be established to bring new high capacity Internet connections to Ireland at a cost of £12 million in 1999.

The allowance payable to back to education allowance participants is to be increased from £150 to £200. An additional £10 million will target educational disadvantage including adult illiteracy and the encouragement of young people to complete the senior cycle.

The special Section 23 tax relief for rented accommodation is to be extended to cover residences for third level students and £100,000 is being made available to tackle the problem of litter.

Debate adjourned.