I wish to share time with Deputy Moffatt.
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)
Is that agreed? Agreed.
The package for child care provided for in the budget includes an additional £2 million for child care services. A sum of £11 million was already provided for, bringing the total additional revenue in this area to £13 million for 1999. The Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Fahey, is responsible for this area and has a crucial role to play in co-ordinating child care initiatives across a number of Departments. As a result of measures contained in the budget, he was in a position last week to announce a £28 million national child care investment strategy. In recent years, child care services have changed enormously as those who provide them struggled to cope with the major responsibilities they have been required to undertake.
Almost inevitably, the immediate need to intervene has not always allowed sufficient time and resources to be devoted to prevention. The Government strategy seeks to provide additional resources in order that this balance can be redressed. The focus of the strategy will be on supporting vulnerable children in the family and community setting and keeping them out of residential care. Special attention is being given to addressing the twin problems of homelessness and children who are getting into trouble and coming before the courts. The budget has provided the resources for a new emphasis in the child care area. If we can support vulnerable children at an early stage in their lives, we can change their entire outlook for the future.
Additional funding of £2 million has been provided in the budget for dental services. This will be used to extend services under the dental treatment service scheme to the remaining cohort which comprises those people between 35 and 64 years of age with effect from 1 September 1999. This will complete the phasing in of the dental treatment service scheme. All adult medical card holders will then have a range of routine dental services available to them. The final phase of the scheme will ensure equity and social inclusion for all adults with medical card entitlements.
The budget package for health of £45.5 million builds on the funding already secured in the Book of Estimates. Total additional revenue in 1999 will be £309 million. This will allow progress to be achieved in a range of areas, including extra funding for increased costs in acute hospitals, the opening of new theatres and wards, the development of ambulance services, the further implementation of the cancer strategy, the implementation of the national breast screening programme and the cardiovascular health strategy.
In the personnel area, additional funding has been provided for nurse training and management development, including the further involvement of clinicians in the management of hospital services. Additional money has been provided for health promotion at local level by health boards and improvements in relation to women's health, violence against women, travellers' health and the mental health services.
In the primary care area, generally the first point of contact with the health services, there will be significantly enhanced funding. The general practitioner services will receive increased investment, the community drugs schemes require additional funding and further funding has been provided for ophthalmic services, childhood immunisation, maternity and infant care, family planning and pregnancy counselling, HIV-AIDS services, drug abuse services and the implementation of anti-tobacco legislation.
Next year will see extra funding across the full range of health services. I will be impressing on health boards the need to ensure their approach fits in with the overall national strategy in each area and that there is co-ordination of the services being developed within their areas so that the service the public receives is an integrated one. This will be the basis for evaluating performance and reviewing allocations in future years.
The capital budget for health will be £205 million in 2001. This investment is almost twice the level approved by the previous Government in its last year in office. On coming to office I made it one of my main objectives to radically improve the level of spending on the capital programme in view of past underfunding. The figure for 2001 will build on figures of £155 million in 1999 and £165 million in 2000 and will allow an acceleration of the commitments that can be entered into during this period. It will mean that the capital budget for the three year period 1999 to 2001 will be an unprecedented £525 million and this will be used to transform and modernise health facilities throughout the country. The benefits of this huge increase will be felt throughout all health programmes. I will be continuing in 1999 and 2000 the medical equipment replacement programme of £10 million each year. I am making a commitment of £6 million again next year for maintenance of health facilities and various other projects relating to fire precautions and physical safety issues.
We are seeing the benefits to the economy of reform of the public finances which took place in the late 1980s. At the time it seemed the country faced one of the most intractable problems faced since independence. This may well have been the case but by making tough decisions on the basis of consensus the position has been turned around out of all recognition. Our social problems, many of which fall within the ambit of the health services, should receive the same sustained attention. The improvement of health services is among the Government's highest priorities. Many of the services being delivered are inadequate to meet the escalating demands of the public. The story is not unique as most other countries are faced by the dilemma of trying to match finite resources to escalating demand for health care. We managed our way out of the difficulties in the public finances and the Government's strategy for the health services seeks to achieve the same turnaround in meeting the demand for improvements in health services. It is not about reform for reform's sake or taking a hard line with particular agencies. It is about improving the performance of the whole system so that we make a real difference to the lives of those who need services.
The Government's strategy is based on three key elements: first, an increase in the resources provided; second, proper planning of the use of these resources and, third, a partnership approach to the resolution of problems with the interests of the patient given overall priority. I have spoken at length in the House recently on the themes of service planning and partnership and I do not intend to go over this ground again. No matter what level of funding is provided it is imperative that there be proper planning of services throughout the year. All staff should be fully involved in this process and, if partnership is to mean anything, must buy into the decisions reached, even the difficult ones.
The increase in resources being provided next year by the Government is comparable with the best years in the history of the health services. Whatever level of funding is provided I have no doubt that some will manage their resources better than others. I have little doubt that if there are end-of-year difficulties in agencies in 12 months' time these will be seized upon by the Opposition and I will be called upon to bail them out with little regard for the damage this would do to the mechanism for planning, funding and evaluating services laid down in legislation. I do not intend to do this.
It has usually been the lot of the taxpayer to be disappointed by a budget just as, perhaps, it has been the lot of a Minister for Health to be disappointed with his allocation for the coming year. On this occasion, however, most will see the budget as striking the correct balance and, in particular, that the income tax reductions have gone where they should. I am happy to acknowledge that the funding provided for the health services will allow for the delivery of the Government's agreed programme so that at the end of its five year term it will be seen conclusively that as a Government we have made a real and lasting difference to the quality of health services available to the public.
I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. In Opposition my party said it would reduce taxes and improve public services. The Government's second budget provides tax reductions of £581 million, targeted in particular at the low paid and older people. It provides funding to improve public services in a number of key areas. The health sector, in particular, has benefited to the tune of £45.5 million. I pay tribute to the Minister, Deputy Cowen, in securing considerable extra resources for health services. Money is of use only if it is spent wisely. The Minister's track record in planning with health agencies for service improvements within the total allocation provided by Government is a key factor in securing this additional funding. Unbiased observers can see the planning and control he has shown in managing the health services in the past year. There is no more difficult and no more important responsibility than health and a Government could not have a better or more committed Minister in charge of this area than Deputy Cowen.
My specific responsibilities in the Department of Health and Children relate to services for older people and food safety. Both these areas have received additional resources in the budget on top of the extra funding for next year provided in the Estimates.
The need to develop better health and other support services for older people is regarded as a priority by the Government and the additional £9 million announced in the budget is an indication of our commitment to improving services for older people during our term of office. This, with the figure provided for in the Book of Estimates, brings the total allocation for this service to £22 million. This does not include the extra £3 million for medical cards, giving a total of £25 million — £31 million in a full year.
The National Council on Ageing and Older People, the statutory advisory body on issues affecting older people, has identified support for older people in the home, as well as support for carers, as fundamental to improving the quality of life for older people. This is the consensus view of the various organisations which represent the interests of older people. I am taking a number of initiatives which will enable health boards to provide greater support for older people in their homes.
The home help service is widely recognised as a key service in supporting dependent people in their homes. Notwithstanding this recognition, it is generally accepted that there are a number of problems relating to the organisation and development of home help services which need to be addressed to realise the full potential of this service. A report commissioned by my Department has examined these issues and I expect this report to be submitted to me and published in the near future. In the meantime I am taking steps to deal with the most immediate problems surrounding this service. A sum of £1.5 million is being earmarked for its development. This allocation will be used to extend the coverage of the service by providing more hours as well as improving training courses for home helps.
It is important that older people are not deprived of medical care because of inability to pay. In line with its commitment in An Action Programme for the Millennium, the Government has decided to increase significantly the income guidelines for entitlement to medical cards for persons aged 70 years or over. This improvement, which will be introduced over a three year period, will begin on 1 March next year, with an increase of one third in the guidelines.
An area of concern to Deputies on all sides of the House is the remuneration of home helps, both in terms of rates of payment and standardisation across health boards. Accordingly, approximately £3 million in additional resources is being allocated to health boards to bring the minimum rate of payment for all home helps up to £3 per hour from 1 April 1999. I envisage this as part of a phased improvement in the rate of payments for home helps, the remaining phases of which I hope to implement as resources permit.
The Government is also aware of the enormous contribution of family carers to looking after dependent older people and other people with disabilities in the home. The Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs is taking measures to improve assistance to carers through the carer's allowance. He has increased by £6 the care allowance for carers over 66 years and by £3 the allowance for carers under 66 years. There will also be a once a year payment of £200 towards the cost of respite care.
On the health side, I am allocating £1 million as part of the budget allocation for older people to health boards, specifically to support carers. This fund can be used for the benefit of carers in a flexible manner based on local needs. The improvement of liaison with and support for individual carers and local voluntary groups who promote the interests of carers are examples of the type of support envisaged. The budget allocations will also enable more paramedical and nursing staff to be recruited and assigned to home care of older people, which, in turn, will also assist carers. A sum of £800,000 is being earmarked for this purpose.
While support of older people in the home is a very important part of Government policy in relation to the care of older people, there will continue to be a need for residential nursing care, when it is no longer possible for people to be looked after at home. The budget allocation for older people includes a sum of £1.45 million, which will enable a new 50 bed community nursing unit at St. Clare's, Ballymun to be opened next year, together with a new 27 bed unit in Clonmel.
The full year costs of contracting an additional 65 nursing home beds is being allocated to the Eastern Health Board, which will help to alleviate the pressure on acute hospital beds in the major general hospitals in Dublin. Additional funding is also being allocated to health boards to meet, inter alia, increased demand for nursing home subventions and the additional costs arising from increased dependency levels. An additional £9.95 million is being allocated for this purpose.
Over £3 million has been earmarked for the further development of specialist assessment units for older people which play such an important part in their effective treatment and care. This allocation is also being used to improve staffing levels in a number of extended care and day care facilities, with a view to optimising the use of these facilities.
A number of organisations play a valuable role in representing the interests of older people and I have endeavoured to allocate some funding to a number of these groups in support of their work. The benefits of having specialist-led services for older people attached to general hospitals are well documented and additional funding of £300,000 is being allocated in 1999 to allow four additional physicians in the medicine of older age to be recruited — two in Dublin, one in Cork and one in Galway. This will bring the total number of physicians in the medicine of older age to 28.
With regard to psychiatry of old age services, £500,000 of the development funding provided for services for older people is being allocated to a continuing programme which started last year. This will lead to more consultants in psychiatry of old age. The provision of a service which meets the special needs of older people who have a mental health problem has been identified as a priority and it is the intention to establish such a service in each health board area.
I see this package of measures for older people as a continuation of the development programme which we have initiated this year, with my announcement of a greatly improved capital programme for services for older people of £14 million, which has been doubled on last year. We are moving on all aspects of care of the elderly and on the question of food safety there has been an extra allocation of £4 million together with the £2 million provided under the Estimates.
The budget has earned several tags. On the day it was announced it was described as a punter's budget. Since then it has become known as the convert's budget because a different approach to taxation has been adopted by the Minister by comparison with that adopted for his first budget last year when the interests of the better off were looked after to the exclusion of low income categories. The Minister has been converted to adopting the taxation policies on which we fought the last general election.
I prefer to describe the budget as a budget of contrasts. In its response, CORI described it as good for some, not so good for others, very good on income tax and very bad on tackling poverty. The Minister had an unprecedented opportunity to bridge the gap between the well off and the poorer sections of society. He had a surplus of £1.4 billion at his disposal, which we could only dream of in the past. In rating the budget I would be very generous in giving it more than five or six out of ten.
That is not a bad mark when the Deputy is not being objective.
When I mark the Minister I am always objective — it is the teacher in me. For the income tax payer the budget has been adequate but not generous. The single person on the average industrial wage will benefit by approximately £6 per week. It is not extraordinary, and I would not mark that measure more than five out of ten.
However, the social welfare provisions represent a mixed bag. The increase of £6 per week for old age pensioners and £3 per week for their dependants is no more than what would be expected in time of plenty. They have given their lives to working for the country and the least we can do is look after them in their senior years.
The unemployed, especially the long-term unemployed, about whom we must be concerned, will be very disappointed with their miserable increase of £3 per week. It would not buy them a packet of cigarettes, even before the increase in the price of a packet of 20 announced in the budget. While an additional £3 per week has been provided for dependants of an unemployed person, no recognition has been given to dependants under the age of 18 years or in education. The Government has failed badly in this area.
I am glad the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs has backtracked over the fiasco of the supplementary allowance, which erupted last weekend, and that those involved will be given the Christmas bonus they deserve. It would be cruel and Scrooge-like if we were to deprive the thousands of people dependent on supplementary welfare benefit of their Christmas bonus.
Mention was made of the failure of the Government to address the problem of child care. The difficulties with child care have increased every year because most parents must work to finance their mortgages. Children must be cared for inside or outside the home and the Minister has failed to address that problem.
There is a major housing crisis. There are between 40,000 and 45,000 people on the local authority housing list. That is a reflection of the escalation in house prices in the past two or three years. Even where both partners are working, a couple could not dream of taking out a mortgage of up to £100,000 on a three bedroom semidetached house in Dublin or in many other parts of the country. As a result many people have had to turn to the local authorities to be housed. There are 2,300 people on the local authority housing list in Donegal, which is the highest on record and the fourth highest in the country. The local authorities in Dublin have the highest number, followed by Cork and Wexford. We have been told that only 4,500 new houses will be built in 1999. That does not give much hope to those on local authority housing lists. People have been on the housing list in Donegal for five or ten years. I am sure other Deputies would confirm that is also the position in other parts of the country. Some people have been on the housing list for more than ten years. They do not have much to be cheerful about as a result of the budget which was introduced at a time of unprecedented surpluses. The best the Government could do was sanction the building of the number of houses that were built when my party was in a coalition Government in 1986. The Government does not seem to be concerned about addressing this problem.
Thousands of people would like to extend, refurbish or carry out essential repairs to their houses. Many are disappointed that an opportunity to introduce an house repair grant was lost in the budget. From 1982 or 1983 up to 1987 a generous house repair grant of £7,000 was available, particularly in respect of houses built pre-1940. Householders in every part of the country availed of that generous grant and it changed the face of housing in Ireland. Many new roofs were funded by that grant. It is 11 years since that grant was suspended. The Minister present was probably a Member of the House in April 1987 when one of the first measures taken by his party when in Government was to discontinue that grant. Many people have waited patiently since then for the introduction of another house repair grant. It need not be as generous as the previous one, but such a grant would be an incentive for people to carry out necessary repairs to their homes.
I am disappointed the Minister for Health and Children has left the House. I listened to what he said about his responsibility for hospitals, particularly hospital waiting lists. The number of people on hospital waiting lists has increased since he took responsibility for that Department. If we are to go by the additional money allocated to address the problem of hospital waiting lists in the budget, matters can only get worse in 1999. The position is critical in the north west, in Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim. In Sligo General Hospital and Letterkenny Hospital the number on the waiting list has increased from 1,644 to 2,374 since last year. That is an unprecedented increase of 630 people or almost 40 per cent. The increase in the number on hospital waiting lists between June 1997 and now is intolerable. According to figures released by the Minister during the week, there are 632 people on the waiting list for Letterkenny Hospital and 1,742 on the waiting list for Sligo General Hospital. Those figures exclude people from the north west who are on the waiting list for cardiac surgery and other complicated surgical procedures in hospitals in Dublin or Galway.
Many of those on hospital waiting lists have serious illnesses and suffer from acute pain and discomfort. It is disgraceful that the Minister has led us into this crisis while the Exchequer is enjoying unprecedented surpluses of billions rather than millions. The health services are being starved of funding and the most vulnerable sector of our society are the sufferers. The healthy prosper while the sick suffer, but that cannot be allowed to continue. The necessary resources must be made available as soon as possible. Those who were looking forward to better news in the budget must be sorely disappointed.
Donegal got bad news on the economic front this week. The latest news on the jobs front was the announcement that 780 jobs will be lost in Fruit of the Loom between January and April 1999. That is a major blow to employment in Donegal. The factories in Malin Head, Milford and Raphoe will be closed early in the new year and the news could be as bad next year. The company can only give a guarantee that the remaining 1,300 jobs will be secure up to the end of 1999. This is a black day for my county and the Government must come to its rescue. The various agencies must be made aware of the position and must act together to replace as many of the jobs that are lost as quickly as possible. One way to do that would be to make the county more attractive for inward investment. That could be achieved by improving the infrastructure, particularly the roads that service the west of the county where industries are striving to survive.
Every sector of farming, whether beef, sheep, pigs or the deterioration in the quality of fodder as a result of the bad weather conditions during the summer, is facing a crisis. The best that could be done in the budget was to introduce a scheme to extend the smallholders' dole which is means tested. Any means tested benefit, particularly in regard to farming, has had a bad reputation, especially in the west. I am disappointed the Minister could not have come up with a more imaginative scheme.
Statistics show that a 1600cc car is the average family car. I have been told that the budgetary provision in respect of VRT will increase the cost of the average family car by £2,000. The motor industry has been buoyant during the past few years and has provided thousands of jobs. I do not know if it was wise to introduce a higher rate at this time when the industry is recovering from the lean years of the past decade. It will make it more difficult for the average family to replace the family car.
It is a mixed budget, worth five or six out of ten. I hope the Minister will do more to look after the less well off members of society in future.
Deputy McGinley has been very generous in his marking system. I wish he had been the examiner in some of the exams which I have taken.
It is the decency in me.
The Minister for Finance has a reputation for being a pragmatic man. It was no wonder he could walk in here and deliver a budget the central theme of which was in conflict with his party's general election platform and with his first budget. The previous Government lost power advocating many of the policies the Minister brought forward, a strange irony given that the present Government was then so adamantly opposed to these measures. It makes one ask if pre-election policy should only be aimed at one section of society.
There has been a broad welcome for this budget. In the initial days after its announcement it was almost unpopular to criticise it. However, it had many shortcomings.
Until recently, budgets brought forward presented very few options. The parameters within which one had to work were very narrow. In more recent times, due to our ongoing prosperity, the situation has radically altered. As the Minister rightly pointed out, however, success brings its own problems.
For me the greatest drawback has been the deterioration in the provision of services. This applies across the board. Several companies and professions have chosen to treat the customer with disdain, working on the premise that there are plenty more they came from. The impact of this approach will only come to light when there is a downturn in the economy. While all the indicators say otherwise, history has shown that the tide comes in and the tide goes out.
We are all familiar with gazumping, whereby developers suck in a client and while he or she is on the verge of great expectation the rug is pulled from under them. It is a practice driven purely by greed and it is one of the greatest difficulties faced by young couples endeavouring to set out on the housing trail. Fine Gael introduced a Bill to prevent gazumping but this Government voted it down. I am glad that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is here this evening. Giving his reason for doing so, the Minister referred to Article 43 of the Constitution, which deals with private property. He said the Bill would interfere with individual property rights. That same article, however, goes on to say:
The State, accordingly, may as occasion requires delimit by law the exercise of the said rights with a view to reconciling their exercise with the exigencies of the common good.
Legislation could have been introduced in the interest of the common good. I was interested to see several reports from Government Deputies saying this Bill was not legally feasible. That is totally untrue.
The Minister mentioned that the rapid increase in house prices continues to be a cause for concern. What does this budget do for private housing? Nothing. In the area of public housing, it is estimated that there will be 4,500 new starts. On average this will mean 150 new houses for Wicklow, although there are 2,400 on the waiting list. At the rate this list is growing, there will be more on it at the end of 1999 than there are at present.
The general public is getting a raw deal in the housing and building sectors. This budget does nothing to assist them. A known individual sent his house plans to four different builders seeking a costing. As a reply incentive he enclosed £50 with each copy. Only one quotation was returned to him. If the boot was on the other foot, there would have been many incentives included in last week's budget, but this Government too has chosen to neglect the customer.
Several of our service industries have adopted a laissez-faire attitude. I fear this may have a long-term detrimental effect on the tourism industry. A general tendency to dismiss has evolved as the hunger to satisfy and accommodate has been replaced by a “clock up the numbers” attitude. This budget could have assisted in stemming the drop in standards. An emphasis could have been placed on providing a quality service and incentives could have been given to award those who provide a quality service. When people come here from abroad and pay for entertainment, they expect to receive better than they get at home. Sadly in too many places this is not now the case. The general public and visitors to the country will only accept such standards for so long.
It is not my intention that my contribution should be a long list of complaints but it is too easy to reflect on what is in this budget and not examine what has been left out. It is important to have a balanced presentation. As the emphasis is always on what is in the budget, someone should present the other side of the coin.
The Minister referred to fairness and the demands it places on us to look after the people who have not done so well in recent years — the old and the low paid. The old age pension went up £9 for a couple, a mere £4.50 each.
During the debate on the agriculture resolution on budget night, the Minister for Agriculture and Food hogged the floor and, among other things, spoke about the millions paid out under the REP scheme. There is a major difficulty with the uptake of this scheme in Wicklow due to a problem with grazing rights. I outlined this problem in the House during an Adjournment debate over a year ago. At the time I was informed that the impasse would be broken in the near future. To date nothing has happened. As a result, farmers in Wicklow have received just £3 million from the scheme while other counties have received up to £30 million. I would appreciate if the Minister for Finance could raise this matter with his Government colleague because there appears to be a lack of will to find a solution. Unfortunately I did not get an opportunity to raise the matter that evening as the Minister for Agriculture and Food used up most of the available time.
I welcome the Minister's provision for the revamping of the smallholders' unemployment assistance scheme at a full year cost of £15 million. A sum of £2 million has been allocated to the reinstatement of installation aid. We await with interest to hear how this scheme will be operated but I fear the funding is minuscule at a time when we should be encouraging young people to get involved in the family farm.
The Minister refers to three main areas with respect to capital expenditure. He mentioned the rural water programme and rural depopulation and has allocated £50 million over the next three years to improve water and sewerage structures. Many villages in County Wicklow have no sewerage systems. To bring the standard of water up to an acceptable level in Baltinglass alone more than £800,000 is required. That project could conceivably use up Wicklow's total allocation from this £50 million. The Minister knows that £50 million will not go far.
I welcome the concept of public-private partnerships but it is important that the consumers' interests are protected at all times.
The Minister is wise to put £40 million aside in a contingency fund for the year 2000 problem but it is important that the Department is compliant before mid 1999, as most companies in the private sector will be.
The Minister mentioned that he will look at the possibility of extending the rural renewal scheme on a targeted basis to other rural areas. He will know from statistic recently published by the Central Statistics Office that Wicklow and Carlow have GDPs of 74 per cent and 73 per cent of the European average respectively. Given that these figures are lower than four of the counties which have been nominated for Objective One status, I expect the Minister will give priority to Wicklow and Carlow. He is familiar with both areas and realises that certain parts, despite the perception to the contrary, are greatly underdeveloped. This pilot scheme should be extended by townland rather than by county. I look forward to the Minister bringing forward details of the concept.
The Minister quite rightly believes that the tax measures will be revenue creating. If the rural renewal scheme is fairly implemented it, too, will become a revenue creating project. However, it must be aimed at areas which have potential for development. I can readily supply the Minister with a list of areas in Wicklow and Carlow which have potential for development.
I welcome the Minister's decision to address the shortage of student accommodation. I hope the necessary developments are constructed in such a manner that they will permit all year round use, similar to the scheme in operation at present in the Corrib village in Galway city. I do not know how the Minister envisages the project will be financed, but I am sure he will enter into discussions with the various education institutions on the best way to move this project forward.
At the beginning of his speech the Minister outlined four areas of major concern. One of these is housing, to which I have already referred. Another area of concern is the fact that labour shortages are emerging in certain sectors. The Minister proposes to address this by seeking to get the long-term unemployed and lone parents into skills training courses. The largest dormant labour force in this country is women who decide to stay at home. They stay at home for a myriad of reasons, yet the budget does nothing to entice them back into the labour force. It was expected that some provision would be made in the budget for children but, alas, there was none.
Our former President often referred to the Irish diaspora. While many of them have returned home in recent years, many of them still remain abroad. One of the main reasons they have chosen to stay put is the high cost of obtaining a house here. No incentive has been put in place to entice this group of people back into the labour force. Did the Minister or his officials give any consideration to targeting this group?
The Minister for the Environment and Local Government spoke this morning about the rigorous restraint of previous Fianna Fáil Governments — selective memory is a dangerous thing. He spoke of values and priorities, hopes and dreams. I have time to daydream and reflect on values and priorities as I make my way to Kildare Street most mornings. These dreams are usually interrupted by an irate driver blowing his horn as he seeks to move along after several stationary minutes. There is no single meaningful measure in the budget to deal with traffic problems.
Government Members have sought to bask in the glory of this budget. However, they will see it has many shortcomings in the months ahead, shortcomings which many commentators have either been unaware of or chosen to ignore. When the many problems which have not been addressed resurface in greater form in the year ahead, I will ask Government Members to remember this budget.
I wish to share my time with the Minister of State, Deputy Dan Wallace.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
This Government is firmly committed to the development and improvement of public institutions and the services they provide. This is nowhere more evident than in the justice and equality areas. Under the general banner of the strategic management initiative, my Department has undertaken the most far-reaching organisational reform of the justice system and equality agencies over the past two years. This organisational change programme is ongoing, but has already chalked up significant achievements and will continue until all the planned changes have been implemented.
The overall objective of this change programme is to bring about a modern integrated system, with each agency in the justice and equality system clear about its own role and its relationship and linkage with other agencies in the system. This has involved reform of the institutional framework of the entire justice and equality system, including the establishment of new agencies to manage the courts and the prisons, and a restructuring of the Department's role and management systems.
Projects embraced by this programme include a Courts Service to manage the day to day operation of the courts. The legislation establishing the Courts Service was enacted last April. A transitional board has been established and a chief executive officer designate is due to take up appointment in January next.
Another project is a prisons authority to manage the day to day operation of the prisons. I announced today that the Government has approved my proposals to establish new and innovative structures for the administration of the Prison Service. The new measures are a prisons' authority interim board to manage the Prison Service, the appointment of a director general for the Prison Service, the appointment of an inspector of prisons and a board to review prison sentences, to be known as a parole board. These proposals amount to the most fundamental reform of the Prison Service since the State was founded. They are innovative measures which, as well as adding new momentum to the Prison Service, also mark the beginning of a new approach to the management of offenders.
The implementation of the recommendations set out in the Garda Síochána SMI report is proceeding as planned. There has been a review of the role and organisation of the Probation and Welfare Service. The expert group is expected to conclude its work in spring 1999. A major investment programme in computerised management systems in the Garda, prisons, courts, Probation and Welfare Service is progressing, with systems due to come on stream next year. The strengthening of management processes in the Department, through a number of initiatives and a general reevaluation of the role, is now being planned.
The change programme also involves significant new structural arrangements in the equality and disability areas, most notably the proposed establishment of the equality authority to replace the existing Employment Equality Agency, as well as the establishment of a national disability authority.
The establishment of the new agencies, strengthening of the management function in each agency, development of computerised information systems and reorientation of the role of the core Department are all being supported through additional investment in 1999. These measures are designed to ensure that the system as a whole operates in an integrated and efficient way, ultimately delivering a better quality of service to the users and clients of the services provided.
The issue of child care was the subject of much debate in the context of the 1999 budget. This is a complex issue. I wish to emphasise that an expert working group on child care, which is chaired by my Department, was set up under Partnership 2000 to devise a national framework for the development of child care services in Ireland and has yet to report. I understand that the group is finalising a report and recommendations in the coming weeks and intends to publish a final report early next year. I assure the House that when that report is available, the Government will give full and detailed consideration to the group's recommendations.
In 1994 a pilot child care initiative was designed and was continued in each subsequent year, up to and including 1997. As Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, I sought and obtained Government approval for the conversion of the pilot child care initiative into an equal opportunity child care programme. This programme is designed to support local communities and employers who are trying to facilitate women and men who have child care responsibilities while accessing training, education and employment. It is targeted particularly at parents in disadvantaged areas. In July of this year I announced expenditure of £5.2 million on this programme, including EU funding, over the 1998-9 period.
The National Women's Council is the umbrella organisation representing women's groups. A sum of £295,000 is provided in the Department's Estimate for 1999. This is an increase of £95,000 on the allocation for 1998. A sum of £270,000 is provided for general operating expenses and a special one-off grant of £25,000 is provided for the proposed North-South conference on gender equality to take place in spring 1999.
A monitoring committee, comprised of Government Departments and agencies, women's organisations and the social partners, was established to oversee the implementation of the report of the Second Commission on the Status of Women and the actions agreed at the Fourth World Conference on Women. The committee will publish a third progress report in 1999. Funding has been provided for an evaluation of the issues still outstanding in the second commission report, to be undertaken in 1999.
A sum of £300,000 has been allocated to fund a communication programme to promote a greater understanding between travellers and the settled community. This amount is being provided in response to proposals by the Conference of Religious in Ireland. The programme aims to address the underlying causes of mistrust between the two communities, while at the same time creating an immediate awareness of certain issues. The programme aims to inform, share experience, educate and build bridges between the two communities.
Further evidence of the Government's commitment to improve the position of travellers in our society is the committee to monitor and co-ordinate the implementation of the Report of the Task Force on the Travelling Community, which I established earlier this year. I have established a Consultative Committee on Racism and lnterculturalism which will build on the work done by the National Co-ordinating Committee for European Year Against Racism. The committee comprises Government Departments, State agencies, non-governmental organisations and the social partners. It will advise the Government on racism and will develop responses to racism and undertake initiatives, research and reports as appropriate. The Department has provided the committee with a premises and £90,000 has been allocated to the committee for 1999.
The Employment Equality Act, 1998 was signed into law in June of this year. Work is on schedule to put in place the infrastructure for equality provided in the Act. It is proposed to establish an equality authority to replace the Employment Equality Agency and an office of director of equality investigations to give redress of first instance. The anti-discrimination provisions of the Act will begin to be brought into operation after the infrastructure necessary to support it is in place, probably in the first half of 1999. The Estimates for 1999 contain £3.711 million in respect of the equality infrastructure.
The revised Equal Status Bill, which will prohibit discrimination outside the field of employment, is expected to be published early in 1999. The Bill will prohibit discrimination on nine distinct grounds, in non-employment areas including the provision of goods and services, accommodation and education. This legislation is being developed following the Supreme Court finding that the Equal Status Bill, 1997 was unconstitutional. As the Supreme Court did not examine the Bill as a whole, production of the revised Bill is a more complicated process and it has been necessary to obtain extensive legal advice before developing the revised measure.
I wish to affirm, once again, that this Government is firmly committed to continuously advancing the position of people with disabilities, to enable them to achieve a greater independence and to more fully participate in the life of the nation. It has placed disability on the agenda of every Government Department and public body. As the millennium approaches, we are determined to work towards ensuring that people with disabilities will be provided with far greater opportunities in the 21st century for pursuing a fuller life than has been the case in the past. Once again this Government has directed funds and other resources towards areas of great need. These additional resources will help to lessen the burden which, unfortunately, is the daily experience of so many of our people with disabilities, their families and carers and will assist in lessening the feeling of exclusion which so often is their lot.
The range of initiatives which are being undertaken by the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Micheál Martin, is an example of the practical way in which this Government is meeting the identified needs of people with disabilities. A sum of £4 million is being provided in 1999 in respect of extra teachers and child care assistants for children with disabilities, £1.7 million for escorts and special harnesses for children with disabilities on school buses and £0.2 million for the purchase of special equipment for remedial teachers. A sum of £0.25 million is being set aside to provide computer equipment for children with special needs. The Minister also addresses the educational needs of older people with disabilities through the provision of £0.25 million for people with disabilities in third level education and a grant of £50,000 to the Association for Children and Adults with Learning Difficulties.
The Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Brian Cowen, has made £18 million of additional revenue available to help tackle the deficit in accommodation for people with learning difficulties and to furnish health-related support services for children with autism. This money will also assist with the continuation of transfer of persons inappropriately placed in psychiatric hospitals and the provision of additional specialist and other support services. It is expected that 320 new residential places, 80 new respite places and 200 new day places will be created as a result of this initiative by Minister Cowen, who is also making available an additional minimum amount of £10 million capital in 1999 for these purposes.
The needs of those with physical disabilities are not being overlooked as Minister Cowen has provided £4 million for aids and appliances which will bring the total investment in aids and appliances in the past 12 months to £9.325 million. He is also making available £9.4 million in additional revenue for 1999, £6.4 million of which is extra funding to meet additional costs arising from the implementation of existing programmes. The remaining £3 million is for the development of services.
My colleagues in the Department of the Environment and Local Government, the Department of Social Community and Family Affairs and the Department of Finance have also recognised the needs of people with disabilities through a range of improvements in existing schemes directed towards those with disabilities. These include items as diverse as the disabled person's and essential repairs grant schemes, back to education allowance and back-to-work schemes, fuel allowance, benefits to carers, revenue job assist scheme, tax allowance for the blind and the employment of a carer tax allowance, to name but a few.
Turning to my own Department, I am pleased to record that the allocation for disability for 1999, at £3 million plus, has more than trebled over the 1998 allocation. Of this amount, £2.021 million is allocated to the newly created National Disability Authority and the remaining £1.065 million will fund a range of disability initiatives with which my Department is concerned. The NDA, as the authority has come to be called, will be responsible for the research and development of standards for services and programmes provided to people with disabilities. It will also monitor and evaluate implementation of standards in the services provided. It will act as an expert body which will assist the Minister in the development of policy in relation to disability issues. As Deputies will be aware the National Disability Authority Bill, 1998 is currently awaiting Second Stage in Seanad Éireann.
My Department is continuing to provide funding and other assistance to the interim Irish Council of People with Disabilities and it is our intention that an elected permanent council, representative of all people with a disability, will be introduced in 1999. Funding will be continued into 1999 to the six pilot community projects relating to people with disabilities. Four of these pilot projects relate to access to information and participation in the local decision-making process and two relate to the facilitation of cross-sectoral planning for delivery of services.
The draft heads of a Bill to establish a human rights commission in the State with a mandate and remit equivalent to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission was circulated to Departments on 3 December 1998. The Taoiseach indicated in the Dáil on 1 December 1998 that the heads of the Bill when ready would be circulated to the Committee on Justice, Equality and Women's Rights and the Joint All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution prior to Christmas, provided this would not delay progress on the Bill. It is the intention to have the heads of the Bill approved by Government shortly, with drafting of the Bill to take place in January 1999.
The work on the Bill has involved extensive contact and co-operation with relevant agencies in the neighbouring jurisdiction in view of the commonality of the commitments entered into by both Governments in this area. The views of other interested groups have been taken into account and the Department has been in contact with organisations with a particular interest in the area, including the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. Due regard has also been paid to the UN Paris Principles which contain an agreed framework for national human rights institutions such as commissions, the report of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation in the matter and the 1996 report of the Review Group on the Constitution.
Work on the other main commitments in the agreement concerning human rights — the question of the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights — is being taken forward by the Department in the context of strengthening the protection of human rights in this jurisdiction and against the background of the report of the constitution review group and the work of the Joint All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution.
A sum of £7.195 million has been set aside in this year's abridged Estimate at subhead H of Vote 19 for the refugee determination process. An additional sum of £1 million has also been provided for the establishment of an independent refugee legal service to assist asylum seekers in exercising their legal rights in all aspects of the Irish asylum process. The refugee legal service will be run by the Legal Aid Board and should be fully operational by the end of February 1998. With the introduction of new procedures and the recruitment of additional staff I expect that we will see a noticeable improvement in the processing of asylum claims — the target is to have cases completed through all stages within six months. Accommodation has been obtained and fitted out as a one-stop-shop for the asylum division of the Department, the Eastern Health Board refugee unit and medical screening unit, the UNHCR and a documentation centre. The new refugee legal service will also be based at the one-stop-shop. I have commissioned a comparative study between Irish and EU refugee legislation which should be completed by the end of 1998 and, together with our experience to date of the new procedures, will be an important component in the review of the Refugee Act, 1996.
I am delighted to be able to confirm my Department's continued support for Victim Support. In 1999 this organisation will receive a total of £651,000 towards its overheads and administrative expenses. Victim Support is now providing a wide range of specialist support services for crime victims. I note also that it has taken steps to put in place a professional management structure in order to maximise its efficiency and effectiveness for the benefits of its clients. In line with the Government's commitment to crime victims generally, the preparation of a comprehensive charter for crime victims is well under way in my Department at present and will be published early in the new year.
The Government's determination to continue the fight against crime is reflected in the provision of £582 million for the Garda Vote for 1999. This represents an increase of 18 per cent over the Estimates allocation for 1998.
The provision includes funding to continue the Government's programme of accelerated Garda recruitment in order to bring the strength of the force to 12,000. Since I have taken office as Minister, the strength of the force has increased to over 11,150, the highest level for over a decade.
The Government recently approved my proposals for a new Garda recruitment competition and it is envisaged that the Civil Service Commission will conduct the first phase — written tests — in late February or early March 1999. In 1998, 550 trainees were recruited and the 1999 Estimate provides for recruitment of a further 550 next year.
I recently obtained Government approval for the purchase of a second helicopter for use by the Garda air support unit. The helicopter will, similar to the existing one, be piloted by the Air Corps with Garda observers and will act as a back-up to the existing helicopter which was designed and intended for use as an overt "patrol car in the sky" and has already proved extremely successful. I have always supported the provision of all the equipment and technology necessary for An Garda Síochána to do its job in an efficient and cost effective way. This latest development represents another significant step forward in equipping the Garda in its fight against crime and demonstrates, once again, the determination of the Government in this regard. Air support is a critical, tactical aid to any police force and the provision of a second helicopter will provide An Garda Síochána with additional air support capability in combating crime.
I have also given clearance for the invitation of tenders to supply a boat to Garda specifications for a Garda water unit for deployment primarily on the Shannon waterway and estuary. This patrol boat will provide a general policing service through patrolling, crime prevention, crime investigation support and security functions.
Almost £22 million is provided in the Garda Vote next year towards the cost of developing Garda information technology systems. Much of this money, approximately £14 million, will be expended on the implementation of the Garda IT strategy, or PULSE project, which seeks to replace many manual and paper based methods of Garda operations with state of the art computer systems which will streamline processes and result in significant operational benefits to the Garda Síochána. The current phase of the PULSE project, the overall cost of which is approximately £44 million, is due for completion in August 2000 and many of the key systems will be rolled out to the force in 1999.
Provision is also made for the development of IT systems which need to be provided outside the PULSE project. These niche systems will include a new "fines on the spot" system to reflect enhanced systems requirements under the Government's road safety policy. Over £4 million has been provided for the purchase and maintenance of Garda communications equipment next year, reflecting the critical role that radio communications play in the operational requirements of the Garda Síochána.
A very significant investment has been made in improving Garda accommodation in recent years. Next year, more than £10 million is to be allocated to the building programme, £3.513 million of which is included in the Garda Vote for maintenance works, with the balance being provided in the Vote of the Office of Public Works from which the cost of major capital and refurbishment projects is met.
A Garda SMI steering group was established in 1998 and charged with overseeing and examining the feasibility of the implementation of the recommendations contained in the report on the efficiency and effectiveness of the Garda Síochána. The work of the steering group is supported by regular meetings of the bottom-up review group and by a full time implementation team. I understand work is progressing well, that a detailed work programme extending to the end of 1999 has been agreed and that the steering group will make its first report to Government in January 1999.
In the relatively short time it has been in existence, the outstanding success of the Criminal Assets Bureau is evidence of what can be achieved when Government and statutory agencies put their heads together in a determined manner. In the period from 15 October 1996 to 31 December 1996, the Criminal Assets Bureau obtained six interim orders for assets totalling in excess of £2 million and five interlocutory orders for assets totalling in excess of £2 million, while in 1997 the bureau obtained 12 interim orders for assets totalling in excess of £2 million and nine interlocutory orders for assets totalling in excess of £1.4 million. In 1996-7 the Revenue officers of the Criminal Assets Bureau investigated, assessed and made demands for payment of tax, with interest, on persons suspected of criminal activity to the value of £8.6 million. In the same period, the bureau also assessed social welfare overpayments and made social welfare savings to the value of £0.4 million. For 1999, £4.012 million has been allocated to ensure the Criminal Assets Bureau can continue to operate as effectively as it has to date.
As the House will, I hope, be aware I launched the report of the National Crime Forum on Monday last. I have since arranged for copies of the report to be conveyed to each Member of the Dáil and Seanad. As part of my commitment to the integrated services project I am pledging the full support of the Department, the Garda Síochána and the Probation and Welfare Service to the project. As we know, the drugs problem is largely concentrated within communities which are characterised by large scale deprivation and marginalisation. The Government's resolve to tackle these problems is shown by the £30 million allocated to the young people's facilities and services fund which will be targeted at areas where there are high levels of social and economic disadvantage and where a serious drug problem exists or has the potential to exist. I intend to expand Garda special projects from 14 to 20.
In relation to the problem of violence against women, the National Steering Committee on Violence Against Women, which is chaired by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Mary Wallace, will be holding a press conference tomorrow. Suffice to say that violence within the home of any kind is an issue which deserves the highest priority, not only for the protection of the immediate victims but because of the long-term damage it causes to society as a whole.
The House is well aware of the progress in building new prison spaces, and our commitment to the provision of an extra 2,000 places during the lifetime of this Government is being carried out. The Estimates provide for the recruitment of some 600 additional prison staff. The Estimate for the Probation and Welfare Service has been increased to £15.913 million in 1999.
This year has seen possibly the biggest change in our courts system since the establishment of the State, with the passing of the Courts Service Act, 1998. The allocation to the courts has increased from £40.750 million in 1998 to £46.4 million in 1999. A provision of £14.9 million has been made in 1999 for works to and maintenance of courthouses.
The Government is providing over £17.4 million in the Estimates for the Land Registry and Registry of Deeds this year.
In so far as environmental issues are concerned, I can safely say this is the best budget to date. The increase in the financial support in this area clearly demonstrates the Government's commitment to the protection of the environment and the promotion of the concept of sustainable development in a period of unprecedented economic growth.
I am particularly pleased to welcome the provision, for the first time, of a specific allocation for the promotion of environmental awareness. We are now experiencing rapid economic growth and it is important that at such a time the concept of sustainable development is kept to the forefront in everyone's mind. However, sustainable development must not be seen solely as the responsibility of the bigger players, such as industry, agriculture, etc. In our daily lives each of us impacts on the environment in many ways through our modes of transport, use of water and energy resources, the goods we buy and the materials we use and ultimately discard. We must, therefore, ensure the general public is aware of both the need to, and the ways in which they can, use resources in an eco-efficient and environmentally friendly way.
The new provision of £500,000 is being allocated for the promotion of a broadly based campaign which will heighten public environmental awareness and emphasise what can be done through environmentally responsible public behaviour towards the achievement of sustainable development. In addition, an extra £100,000 has been made available for my Department's environmental partnership fund. This will double the fund to £200,000 in 1999, responding to a need we clearly identified this year. The aim of the fund is to provide support for partnership projects between local authorities, community groups and NGOs, to raise awareness of environmental issues at local level. This local involvement is, in my opinion, crucial to our success in this area, and it is very satisfying that there is a continuing high level of applications for assistance under the fund. I am happy the increased funding will be well used at local level next year to meet an identified need for positive community action on the environment.
Litter is an ongoing serious problem and I am determined to continue our efforts to underline its unacceptability. An extra provision of £100,000 has been made available in the budget to continue my programme of anti-litter initiatives. These include a national litter pollution monitoring system to assess and review local authority anti-litter operations and National Spring Clean 1999, a broad based partnership approach involving national and local government, An Taisce and major private sector companies as co-sponsors. National Spring Clean will take place in April 1999 for the first time and will be an annual event thereafter. On top of the extra provisions in the budget, the increase of £1.9 million in Exchequer support for the Environmental Protection Agency provided in the 1999 Estimates is most welcome. Established in 1993, the agency is now a significant national organisation with staff based in five regional locations. It provides much of the information and analytical support which we in Government need to define and develop policy and set priorities, and it has a key role to play in implementation. The increase of 28 per cent in Exchequer support emphasises the Government's determination to continue the ongoing orderly build-up of EPA resources so that the agency is a strong and effective force for environmental protection.
The Minister and I recently published a major policy statement on waste management, Changing Our Ways, which seeks to facilitate a radical change in Irish waste management practices. Among other things, it sets out ambitious national targets for recovery and recycling of waste. European Regional Development Fund funding is being provided for infrastructural development in the waste management area. Grant assistance approved between 1996 and 1998 exceeds £11.5 million, of which almost £5 million will be provided in 1999. Assistance has been provided in respect of waste management strategy studies, waste recycling infrastructure and hazardous waste management facilities.
I hope to see the many projects for which assistance has been already approved substantially brought to completion this year, with consequent benefits for strategic planning at local and national levels, and for our national recycling performance. I welcome these extra provisions in the budget, which will go a long way to heightening public awareness of environmental issues and reinforcing our efforts to promote and secure more environmentally friendly behaviour at all levels.
I also thank the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance, the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation and the Minister of State at the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Deputy Flood, for their involvement in providing £500,000 for the Ridge project in Cork. It is a unique project on the north side of Cork city in that it involves both the GAA and soccer associations in providing very necessary facilities for the young people of the area. A lot of work has gone into ensuring this funding would be provided. The original source did not provide the funds but the Government provided them in the budget. I pay tribute to the people concerned.
This is a positive, targeted budget that has reached out to many in the community such as the disabled and the educationally disadvantaged. I come from an area where there are huge problems and I am satisfied that we are going down the right road. Over the next three years the Government will continue to tackle these areas and our performance will be the evidence for all to see.
I wish to share my time with Deputy Gerry Reynolds.
No sooner has the party begun for low and middle income earners than it is over. As soon as the Minister for Finance sat down after delivering his budget speech, I suspected this budget was an aberration. What I did not expect was that my suspicions would be confirmed so soon.
I was wrong. Geraldine Kennedy's story in The Irish Times the following morning confirmed my worst suspicions. She confirmed the Minister's intention to fulfil the Government's commitments on tax rates. If these commitments are so important, and as Deputy McCreevy is so fond of stating, they are what won his party the election, why were they not pursued this year? The bottom line is that it was not expedient to do so.
One can imagine the scenario. Early new year, not long after Deputy McCreevy's first budget, the Taoiseach, probably at one of his visits to open something somewhere in the country, stuck his finger in the air and decided the wind was not blowing in Deputy McCreevy's direction. On this careful policy analysis the direction of this Government skidded to a halt and went into full scale reverse, for now at least, and only for now.
Following Deputy McCreevy's remarks at his post-budget press conference, the Taoiseach came into the House last week to endorse his Minister's position. He stated that high earners could look forward to future budgets under this Government.
As I have said, the party is over for low income earners, but what kind of party was it? It was more of a famine than a feast. Despite the rhetoric from the Government side, the position is clear, and even the Taoiseach acknowledges it. He said this morning that benefits this year are more evenly spread, and he is right. There has been no windfall for middle income earners. Middle income families have fared particularly badly.
So too have the worst off in our society. In their budget commentary the Conference of Religious in Ireland stated that the budget was poor on poverty.
While this will probably fuel the ire felt by the Minister for Finance against the poverty industry, it remains a fact. The Minister has no understanding of poverty. He protests often that he had it hard in his day and I have no difficulty believing him. Many people had it hard in 1960s Ireland, but the 1960s is no benchmark by which to judge today's poverty.
As my party colleague, Deputy Derek McDowell, stated trenchantly, poverty is relative. It is relative to the living standard enjoyed by others, to the life opportunities enjoyed by other people's children. Poverty is not a measure of the availability of resources. It is a measure of one's resources and opportunities as against those enjoyed by others in the same society.
The reality is that this budget will increase poverty. The Taoiseach indicated that the 4 per cent increases in social welfare are above inflation. The INOU believes they represent a mere increase of 1.8 per cent. These are considerably below the 7 per cent and 8 per cent increases in salaries revealed a couple of weeks ago, and which will have been increased further by yesterday's tax package. The less well off, particularly those dependent on social welfare, will see the gap between them and their more fortunate neighbours increase as a result of this budget.
The news this morning that the Minister for Public Enterprise is about to sanction increases in public transport costs in Dublin Bus, DART and suburban rail services is a further blow to those who are struggling to make ends meet on low incomes. Public transport is often the only transport available to thousands of low income families and people relying on social welfare payments. A 10 per cent fare hike on public transport in Dublin will take a huge chunk out of the miserly £3 per week increase the Government chose to allocate to the long-term unemployed. This move will, in effect, ensure the most disadvantaged in society will be worse off after this budget.
Listening to the Minister's speech last week, I was struck by the fact that he is genuinely not aware of the opportunity he has let slip. His speech was peppered with the economic language of the 1980s and bereft of the new priorities of the 1990s and the new millennium. We have entered a new phase in Irish economic history. The opportunities we now have to build a modern pluralist and fair republic are without parallel in our history. It is not difficult to see why a man like the Minister, Deputy McCreevy, obsessed with the problems of the 1980s, does not see why banking a budget surplus of £1 billion is not in the long-term interests of this nation.
Debt, like poverty, is relative. It is relative to one's capacity to repay it. There are two things which reduce problems associated with debt, inflation and economic growth. I would have been happy to see the Minister return an overall surplus for the year. However, I question its size. In my view we would be better off investing that money in our overall productive capacity. Roads, transport and labour are where our priorities should lie. They are the key to ensuring sustainable non-inflationary growth, the same growth a future Minister — certainly not this one — would use to create a fairer and more equal republic.
That growth is being put at risk by a Government and Minister unable to see beyond their noses and the short-term party political issues of the day. The inability to see beyond the short term and to address the long-term issues is the defining factor of this Government. As my colleague, Deputy McDowell, pointed out in his contribution last week, the Government's current approach to the regionalisation issue and Structural Funds will damage the interests this Government purports to represent.
This is hardly surprising. The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment also contributed to this debate and, as ever, she did not allow consistency to get in the way of a good sell. Thankfully, all her cannons were aimed in the Labour Party's direction. We are obviously doing something right. It is interesting that the Government, which believes the proposed Labour Party-DL merger will have no effect, has spent considerable energy saying so. I wonder if the threat from the Left has already had an impact, albeit in the decision of the Government to rein in the natural tendencies of the Minister for Finance.
The Tánaiste's instincts, however, are more base. They are about survival and the less said about that uphill battle for her and her colleagues the better. I use the word "colleagues" advisedly. It looks at this stage that she has identified the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy O'Donnell, as a threat to her throne. In fairness, her solution has been swift as she hung Deputy O'Donnell, the Minister of State with responsibility for overseas development aid, out to dry — so much for PD solidarity.
The Tánaiste was full of bravado about her achievements. A footballer can be judged only on the amount of possession he receives. The Tánaiste's bravado falls flat based on this criterion, as ably illustrated by Deputy John Bruton. Taken together, the Government's two budgets have targeted resources unashamedly at the well off. The difference between the Tánaiste and her former colleague, Michael McDowell, is that he would, at least, have had the courage to say so. She knows the package announced by the Labour Party in its pre-budget submission on 29 November was a great deal more radical than the package announced. She might also recall that after her efforts at tax reform last year more people paid at the higher rate than prior to that budget.
The current labour shortage and the resultant demand for the participation of women in the workforce has at last brought the debate on child care centre stage. In advance of the budget it was made clear that investment in child care was crucial in terms of maintaining our economic success. For the first time in a long time employers, trade unions and voluntary organisations were singing from the same hymn book. However, no matter how loud they sang, it seems the Government was not listening.
The only provision to stimulate the supply side of child care are concessions to the private sector to invest in child care facilities. How will this measure impact on poverty in the context of the national anti-poverty strategy? How will this measure alone make child care more accessible and affordable for thousands of cash strapped parents?
In recent years budget debates have concentrated on tax reform measures. Given the huge additional revenue available to the Minister for Finance, he had the opportunity to make a real and substantial difference to the lives of thousands of families which have been neglected and denied sufficient State resources for too long.
Prior to the budget, Opposition parties made the argument during a number of debates in Private Members' Time that £80 million was needed this year in the current economic boom. However, on budget day the increased funding necessary to ensure people with mental and physical disabilities were not left behind came nowhere near this target figure. I am dismayed that, at a time of unprecedented economic growth, the Government did not treat this issue as a priority and use the budget to bring services up to an acceptable standard. This represents a huge missed opportunity by the Government and the Minister at a time of buoyant revenue returns. However, he can introduce a number of measures in the Finance Bill which would bring some comfort to people with disabilities and I ask him to give serious consideration of these.
I welcome his decision to restructure VRT on cars. Favouring small cars is a positive environmental tax measure, one of the few in the budget. Despite the kite-flying exercise in the lead-up to the budget by the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, little more was done in the form of environmental taxes. This was a mistake and the Minister for Finance made no effort in this year's budget to expand the tax base. A recent series of articles in a national newspaper drew attention to the fact that, despite the common perception, Ireland is a low tax country compared with its European neighbours. The fault with our tax system is that such a large amount of tax revenue is taken from the PAYE sector. Unless the tax base is broadened, this problem will continue to plague ordinary workers. If in future years taxes have to be increased due to a downturn in economic activity, the PAYE sector will have to pay.
I welcome the extra funding the Minister has allocated to the increase in the disabled person's allowance. An extra provision of £3 million is a positive development. However, I still have grave reservations about the manner in which this grant is administered. Up to 75 per cent of the cost of renovations is provided under the grant, the disabled person has to cover 25 per cent of the cost. Health boards are reluctant to cover this extra cost and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people with disabilities who cannot carry out the renovations needed to their houses to make their lives more comfortable.
I fail to see why the Minister did not provide the extra finance necessary to cover that during the current economic boom. There is no point in the Minister for the Environment and Local Government stating in a reply to a parliamentary question which I tabled that he is considering it as a millennium project. Such a project will happen down the road, but people will suffer in the meantime. I have come across numerous cases where severely handicapped people use outdoor toilets because they cannot supplement the funding available under the welfare system. It is crazy that this problem has not been wiped out in the budget.
Is it time we considered providing 100 per cent of the cost of renovating houses? People with disabilities are excluded from many work opportunities and it is extremely difficult for any person surviving on a social welfare payment to come up with the 25 per cent additional cost involved. Is it right that people with disabilities must always rely on friends and family to help them out financially? Is it right that at a time of unprecedented economic growth we are still prepared to see people with disabilities relying on charity to achieve a basic standard of living? I urge the Minister to review this matter during consideration of the Finance Bill.
I wish to raise the difficulties being faced by a group concerned with people who suffer from attention disorder deficit. There is very little known about this ailment, which affects hundreds of people throughout the country. Recently, a support group was formed which seeks to provide support and solidarity to sufferers and their families. A help line is among the voluntary services provided by this group and it is a vital link for sufferers and their families. Despite repeated attempts, this group has failed to secure a meeting with the Eastern Health Board to discuss its services and future funding requirements. Perhaps the Minister will consider providing interim funding, which would be a relatively small amount, to assist this group in the coming year.
This is a disappointing budget. The Minister was in a unique position. His budget cannot be compared with other budgets simply because this year we entered a new phase in our economic history. Unfortunately, the Minister failed to institute a new era in our social history. Poverty, disadvantage and unemployment will still remain huge social problems. The extra funding provided for health and education in the budget does not represent an all-out assault on inequality. Given the budget surplus and the future surpluses the Minister can count on in the coming years, there is an unprecedented opportunity to transform society. The opportunity to start this process was not taken this year. If the words of the Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach are to be believed, the progressive elements of the budget will grind to a halt next year.
I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak in this debate, the sixth or seventh time I have participated in such a debate. This budget was unique in that the budget surplus was so great the Government had an historic opportunity to fund progress and development into the 21st century. To oppose for the sake of it is not always a good form of politics. The Minister for Finance had the opportunity to introduce a good budget with the largest surplus in the history of the State. He got some things right — I compliment him for giving tax breaks to the lower paid. This is a change from the tax policies proposed by Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats during the last election campaign to those put forward by Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left in the Rainbow Government. It is not the first time Fianna Fáil has done a U-turn in Government and it will not be the last, but we should remember it will benefit many of the people they represent. It will not solve all problems but it is a move in the right direction. The move towards tax credits is good, it is how tax policy should evolve over the next few years, and I compliment the Minister on starting that process, even though it will come about more slowly than my party and I would like.
I also compliment the Minister on keeping one eye on reducing the national debt. I was educated in the 1970s so I know the economic significance of the growth of that debt. Now that we have good economic returns it is extremely important that we reduce the debt, because no other generation should suffer as mine did as a result of bad economic policies. Most of my classmates, and those I grew up with had no option after their education but to leave the country to look for work. Emigration may be part of what we are but it should not rob rural communities of their young people. Much of it was a result of bad economic management by all parties. Now that the economy is in a good state we should not hang a rope around our necks by allowing the national debt to grow. Debt reduction may have more to do with lower interest rates than any policy pursued by this Government, but it is one of the most important aspects of our economy. I compliment the Minister on the reduction; perhaps it could have been reduced further but he is moving in the right direction.
However, in a number of areas the Minister failed to take advantage of the opportunities presented to him. When I was a college student Deputy McCreevy was an outspoken Fianna Fáil backbencher who built his political reputation on financial rectitude. He had the greatest and easiest chance of any Minister for Finance to introduce such a policy, but he did not take it. I am amazed at this, because even when he was Opposition spokesman on Finance he was of the view that the biggest issue affecting the economy was public service pay, yet he has ignored this, as have all parties and politicians. If political parties do not have the courage to tackle the issue of public service pay it will be very difficult to put in place proper economic structures to take us into the next century.
Ireland has 250,000 civil servants administering the Departments for a population of less than four million while in Brussels, which is deemed to be the home of bureaucracy, there are 80,000 people to administer the affairs of the EU, which has a population of 250 million. Ireland has almost 200,000 more administrators than the EU, which is an amazing statistic in itself.
There are proposals to make the Eastern Health Board more consumer friendly; I will have an opportunity later to speak on that legislation. In 1970, there were 95 officials to administer the affairs of that health board. There have been many changes in our health services since then, and many new services have been introduced, but the EHB now has between 7,000 and 7,500 administrators. This is why we have difficulties with hospital waiting lists. I would like to know how much the Department of Health and Children spends on administration, particularly in the EHB region. There are proposals to set up a further three councils, with a further 2,000 administrators.
This country is being lost in bureaucracy, which is frightening for many people who have to deal with it on a regular basis. As practising politicians we have difficulties with bureaucracy and know what we have to do to get around it. I do not know if any political party has the courage to tackle the issue of public sector pay. I accept that many officials in the public service have done tremendous work but we do not need as many as we currently have.
Every day we hear the private sector cannot recruit staff because there are no workers available for the service and computer sectors, among others. In the 1970s there was no economic growth and many young people were taken into the public service because there was no one else to provide employment, but the position has changed dramatically — and there are plenty of vacancies in the private sector. Now is the time for the Government to consider a public sector embargo. A number of years ago the former Minister for Finance, Mr. MacSharry received much credit for imposing an embargo; it lasted for a year but the numbers grew by 100,000 shortly after. In many cases, the same job opportunities are arising in the private sector as in the public sector, so people who want to join the public sector have a choice. The Government should impose an embargo to solve the problem once and for all. It will not be solved in a year or two, a programme is required, but this Minister, who based his reputation on financial rectitude, does not appear to have the courage to go down that road.
I do not understand the introduction of an environmental aspect to vehicle registration tax. I presume a bright individual in the Department of Finance said £45 million was needed and such a tax was the way to get it. That is fine and it will raise that amount. However, although I do not wish to create an urban-rural divide, it will hit rural people more than urban people. Many people in rural Ireland drive diesel cars and a 1.9 cc diesel car is similar to a 1.4 cc petrol car. However, a person will pay an extra £600 or £700 for a diesel car. This is an unfair tax. Taxation is supposed to be equitable and the changes to VRT were not thought out fully. This tax will hit many vulnerable people who need their cars for business and those in the agricultural sector. The implications of the tax in rural economies were not properly considered and I hope the Minister will drop the changes in the Finance Bill.
A sum of £10 million has been provided for the farmers' dole. It was stated that the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs when assessing applicants will lay down different guidelines. However, farmers who are experiencing the worst crisis since the State was founded do not want handouts. They want a policy put in place which will allow them to survive in agriculture and continue in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. The introduction of a £10 million dole scheme implies that the Government has decided that it cannot help farmers any other way and it will give them a handout.
Farmers in every county are facing the greatest crisis they have ever experienced and the £10 million will not be available until the middle of next year. The provision shows that the Government is totally out of touch with what is happening on the ground. Unfortunately, it is another example of the inconsistency of the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Walsh. He has allowed every other Minister at the Cabinet table to take more money for their Departments. He is ineffectual and has caused much of the crisis. The farming organisations and farming community have no confidence in him. The £10 million for farmers' dole is a paltry amount which will not solve the problem. It is a very short-term solution which will not resolve the crisis facing agriculture and farm families in the future.
The Minister introduced the rural renewal pilot scheme for Leitrim and parts of Sligo and Longford in last year's budget. However, it still has not been sanctioned. Many entrepreneurs are waiting for the Government to give the go ahead to the scheme. I hope the Minister will deal with this matter in the Finance Bill.
I wish to share my time with Deputies O'Hanlon and McGuinness.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I warmly congratulate the Minister for Finance on the budget for 1999. All Members on this side will make a similar opening statement but I can justify it by mentioning a number of issues which are of concern to me, particularly arising from my membership of the Cabinet sub-committee on social inclusion and drugs, which is chaired by the Taoiseach, and my other areas of responsibility including local development and the drugs initiative.
The social inclusion measures in the budget amount to a total of £287.5 million in a full year. This is a considerable sum which is spread over a number of various Departments and agencies. It brings together the outcome of our discussions at the Cabinet sub-committee where all the members, at the behest of the Taoiseach, try to focus their efforts on the issue of social inclusion and dealing with the underlying causes of social exclusion. I am pleased that as a member of the sub-committee I found it possible to make a contribution.
This is why I suggest this is a good budget which seeks to tackle in a special way issues concerning social exclusion. In projecting my mind forward to the remaining lifetime of this Government and the next three budgets, I hope at that stage that circumstances collectively will have changed considerably for those suffering at present from social exclusion. The budget is a significant step on the path to improving the lot of those in our community who have for too long been disadvantaged.
I wish to outline a number of particular examples because Members may not have picked up on some of the provisions contained in the budget. I congratulate the Minister for Finance for providing the relatively small sum of £300,000 to the Parish of the Traveller Community group for the purpose of empowering travellers, particularly in the communications area. This is an important step for the Parish of the Traveller Community because, as Members are aware, the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act, which was introduced by the Government, was enacted in September. It has the potential to make a significant contribution towards the important issue of the provision of proper accommodation and facilities which has bedevilled the traveller community for many years.
The communications initiative which will be undertaken by the Parish of the Traveller Community will make a considerable contribution towards empowering travellers to speak up for themselves at meetings in public fora, in their participation in special traveller sub-committees of local authorities and through their involvement with traveller support groups. This is only one example of the caring aspect of the Government's approach as enunciated by the Minister for Finance.
The Taoiseach is most concerned about making a difference in areas of social exclusion, particularly in the urban blackspots which have existed for too many years. Despite the efforts of statutory agencies, they have continued to slip behind. This is why I was particularly pleased that the integrated services project, which was brought forward through the local development committee which I chair, received approval from the Cabinet sub-committee. It was launched last Friday by the Taoiseach. The ultimate aim of the project is to develop models to secure more effective use of the State's resources in deprived urban areas generally and thereby improve the overall quality of life of the communities in those areas.
The initial focus of the pilot project is on four small target areas. Funding for the project was provided in last year's budget. The first phase of the project was a research base which involved a close look at the situation in four areas: Dublin north east inner city; the canal communities, including Fatima Mansions, St. Teresa's Gardens, St. Michael's Estate and Dolphin House; Jobstown, Tallaght and Toher in Cork. The situation on the ground suggests the value of closer working and planning relationships between the organisations from the State funded sector in deprived urban areas. It also indicates the value of taking account of the real needs and experience of end users in the design and planning of service deliveries in those areas.
To facilitate the successful implementation of the project the Cabinet subcommittee decided to put in place a comprehensive system of accountability and reporting at national level. It also laid down a number of specific principles which will inform the implementation of the project in the target areas. The implementation phase was launched, following discussions at a special meeting of Secretary Generals of the relevant Departments and chief executive officers of relevant agencies, by the Taoiseach on 4 December. The Taoiseach availed of the opportunity to speak frankly to the senior civil servants and representatives of the State agencies and asked the administrators for their wholehearted commitment to the project.
If this project is to work it needs a comprehensive support network. The first element is political commitment at the highest level. That commitment is evidenced by the Cabinet subcommittee's decision and the launch by the Taoiseach of the implementation phase. The project also requires one centre of political responsibility. The Cabinet subcommittee on social inclusion has decided that as Minister of State with responsibility for local development, I would be responsible for the overall implementation of the project. I will be responsible for making this project happen and can call on others to account as the need arises. I will be responsible also for monitoring its progress and reporting regularly to the Taoiseach and the Cabinet subcommittee on social inclusion.
It is obvious that a project such as this cannot succeed unless it has commitment at the highest level within the public service. I was heartened by the open and positive response of the senior public servants at last Friday's launch. The Cabinet subcommittee decided that each relevant Department or agency should designate one person at national and local level to be responsible for ensuring the integrated services project process is put in place in that organisation. Those designated nationally and locally will be accountable and I am free to contact them at any time about progress or blockages.
We will need some independent operational support to activate and monitor the project at local level. We have already advertised for four development and monitoring officers, one for each of the four target areas. These people will be employed, perhaps on secondment, to drive the implementation phase in the target areas. It is likely they will be employed by ADM which has already done a superb job in delivering the first phase of the project.
The project is the child of the local development committee. At the outset the committee appointed a small steering group from its members to bring the project forward. This group, which is chaired by my Department, will keep in close touch with developments and will be assisted by ADM.
The reporting and accountability framework which I have outlined was suggested by the work done in the target areas and subsequent discussions. It was also informed by the experience of a number of initiatives in the past which have sought to tackle the problems of urban disadvantage in a more co-ordinated way. We are taking this concerted approach, to identify principles and best practice from the work in these pilot areas, which will guide their application in a broader response to service deliveries in other areas of deprivation. We have to move towards a more co-ordinated approach to service delivery.
Greater information sharing and pooling of experience will be needed in the planning and design of services. In short, a more team like approach will be needed. In addition to a more structured and sustained dialogue between service providers, it is desirable that the planning, design and delivery of services take the real experience, needs and priorities of end users into account. If integrated service delivery is to become a reality, it must be accepted as a normal part of the work and ethos of every Department and agency. This is a critical issue. Moving towards a more co-ordinated and integrated way of doing things must be recognised as a normal part of the ethos of every relevant organisation.
Staff should not be penalised for taking the time to develop more integrated solutions. Developing integrated services will place demands on staff time, whether time for consultation with end users or with other service providers. Staff should not be penalised when staff performance is being assessed but regard should be had to the extent to which they had participated in or developed more co-ordinated solutions to the problem confronting them. While this may be obvious it is standing organisational tradition on its head and is, therefore, an issue which might be usefully addressed in the wider strategic management debate.
There are pockets of intense disadvantage in urban areas, many of which have been there for a while. Despite the efforts of individual organisations and successive administrations problems still exist. This is not a criticism of specific individuals or organisations. It is simply a reflection of the systems failure. This is not unique to Ireland.
It tends to happen whenever different organisations work in the same area addressing different but related problems. The integrated services project is not a grants programme. It is focused on the overall process of delivery of State services in these areas rather than on the administration of ad hoc solutions. It is not an abstract or theoretical exercise. It is a pilot project focused on the needs of real communities. Following the launch by the Taoiseach on Friday last, all relevant Departments and agencies are committed to considering, as a matter of urgency, the possibility of a number of practical actions which might be taken in these areas to kick start the process.
This is another example of the Government's attempt to tackle social exclusion wherever it exists. The budget makes a significant contribution towards tackling social exclusion which all of us ought to support.
I compliment the Minister on getting the budget right. Its overall strategy was excellent. It is a prudent and common sense budget. He gave back plenty of the money collected but did not go too far. He wanted to ensure we did not revert to the problems of 1987. It was creative and well targeted towards social inclusion and equity, particularly in the tax system.
The tax reliefs will take 80,000 people out of the tax net. For the first time it means that those on £100 per week will not pay income tax. The change to tax credits will ensure the tax free allowance is the same for everyone. In the two budgets for which the Minister, Deputy McCreevy, was responsible, the tax changes amount to a radical reform of the tax system towards social inclusion.
I compliment also my colleague from the neighbouring constituency, the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, for the caring and imaginative improvements he has introduced. We all recognise the debt of gratitude we owe to the elderly given that we now have the highest standard of living ever experienced here. This is due in no small measure to the work of the previous generation and those who are now enjoying their retirement. It is in order to compliment the Minister on providing £6 per week for old age pensioners. That, added to the £5 last year, brings us well on the way to the commitment prior to the election that pensions would be £100 by the time the Government is five years in office.
In the carer's allowance there are important changes. The disregards for the carer's are important and will make life easier for them. In a future budget perhaps the Minister will look at the level of dependency given that some carers are looking after relatives who are totally dependant. Generally this work is done by a wife whose husband may be on a a salary of £15,000. In that case they do not qualify for a carer's allowance. There is a case to be made for providing carer's allowances in cases of total dependency where a carer has to remain in the house and attend to their every need.
The new farmers allowance is imaginative and will be welcomed. The fact £100 will be disregarded for the first two children and £200 for subsequent children and that remaining income will be assessed at 80 per cent will mean many smaller farmers who experience financial difficulties will benefit. I welcome the improvements in agriculture, both in the budget and the Estimates. I welcome the £11 million allocation towards VAT rebate, the provision for stock relief, the reintroduction of the control of farmyard pollution scheme and the dairy hygiene scheme. I also welcome the expedition of payments to farmers, which is particularly important when they are experiencing difficulties because of the crisis in Russia and bad weather here.
I appreciate the time and effort expended by the Minister to address the serious situation in regard to pig producers, particularly those in the Border region. The Minister has held a number of meetings with pig producers in recent weeks. He visited Cavan last Friday where he met with pig producers and visited McCarron's bacon factory. He also met with bankers and millers today to see how the situation might be addressed.
In the context of Agenda 2000, it is important positive rural policies are developed. I am glad the Government is working on that. I would be concerned that although there has been a policy of decentralisation by successive Governments at central level, in the counties there appears to be a policy of centralisation towards the county town. That must be addressed to allow all towns to develop and to ensure we maintain as many people as possible in rural areas.
Education has benefited greatly from the budget. The £57 million announced for 1999-2000 is to be welcomed. The Taoiseach and the Government recognise the value and importance of education in terms of people's individual benefit and the contribution it makes to economic development. We have an excellent education system in this country although there is always need for improvement. The Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Martin, will go down in history, together with Donogh O'Malley and Pádraig Faulkner, who introduced Regional Technical Colleges, as a very innovative Minister. He has made a tremendous contribution in his two years in office, particularly in the area of educational disadvantage.
Business, particularly smaller businesses, will benefit from the budget. It is encouraging to see corporation tax being reduced from 32 per cent to 28 per cent, in the direction of the 12.5 per cent level promised for a few years' time.
I welcome the imposition of excise duty on cigarettes. If I have one criticism of the Minister, it would be that he did not go far enough in this regard. A sum of 5p per packet is not nearly enough when one considers the effects of tobacco on people's health. Smoking contributes to 5,000 deaths annually and 15,000 people are hospitalised annually from smoking-related illnesses. People must be made aware of the dangers of tobacco.
The massive increase in the health allocation is to be welcomed. It must be a matter of concern to everyone that there is no end in sight to the demand for more money in the health area. It is important the Minister maintains a balance between community care, mental handicap and the insatiable appetite for funding of acute hospitals. That raises the question of value for money and the type of management required in our acute hospitals.
Tourism is a major growth area. I would be concerned that counties which do not have a tourism tradition, such as my own constituency of Cavan-Monaghan, will not benefit to the same extent as others. I am aware the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation is very familiar with the Border region. However, if five million people arrived in Ireland tomorrow, how would he channel 1 per cent of them to Cavan and Monaghan? We must ensure that tourism, which will be a major growth area into the next century, will benefit all areas of the country.
The budget is targeted at social inclusion and huge resources have been allocated to achieve that. I would question whether it is only money which is required to achieve social inclusion. In many instances, I do not believe money is necessary to improve the lot of people on the margins. The day of evictions for non-payment of rent should be long gone. A total of 82.5 per cent of local authority tenants are dependent on social welfare payments. The social welfare payments scheme to local authorities should be implemented across the board to prevent evictions occurring. I would also consider the issue of lone parents, particularly where a wife is deserted by her husband. It is unreasonable to ask a woman with young children to pursue her husband, perhaps even abroad, before she is paid the lone parent's allowance. I am aware of the abuses which could occur but such an imposition should not be made on a woman in a very difficult situation.
This is a very good budget. If the Government proceeds in this manner in its next three budgets, it will change the face of this country for the better and beyond our dreams.
Coming from a background in local government and business, I welcome the budget, which I have considered with great interest. The number of changes made in regard to spending is encouraging. I would hope that over the next number of budgets we will see further significant and positive changes.
I want to refer to education. It is said that the devil is in the detail, and I hope the figures outlined filter down in a positive and constructive way to all constituencies. Not only are we here to pass a budget which will impact nationally and drive the economy forward in a positive manner, we must also ensure every constituency adheres to the national trend of growth, stability and economic progress.
I made a case in the past for the development of an outreach centre in Kilkenny in conjunction with the NUI, Maynooth, the Carlow Institute of Technology and St. Kieran's College in Kilkenny. The centre will allow those who did not access third level education at a young age to return to education and access it on their own doorstep. A project of this nature represents value for money for the Department which spent £11 million in the Carlow Institute of Technology and a good deal more in NUI, Maynooth. The development of the project in Kilkenny is proof we can obtain value for money and the existence of the outreach centre prevents people being attracted to larger urban centres. The centre is up and running and the potential exists for it to improve and expand. It is expected that 200 to 300 students will attend the centre in the next few years. The project has arisen from a local initiative using local funding. I urge the Minister to consider the possibility of a pilot scheme for the project.
Reference has been made to the development of rural Ireland and the crisis in farming. There is a social crisis. Young people find it extremely difficult to secure planning permission while the main players in the local economy are moving to urban centres. Rural communities are dying as a result. Moves have been made to encourage young people to remain on the land. To this end county enterprise boards should be assisted to fund agricultural development. Money has been set aside for water and sewerage schemes. I hope Graiguenamanagh, Kilmacow and Thomastown in County Kilkenny will be included. Young people would not move to urban centres if they could build houses in their own communities. The same principle applies in the area of education.
It appears every service in the south-east region is being relocated to Waterford. The hospital in Kilcreene is being closed while many services in St. Luke's Hospital are being scaled down. This has led to a demand for better roads in Waterford to allow easier access. The Minister should consider the hospital plan submitted. If permission was granted to sell two plots of land in Kilkenny, money would be available to fund the development of services in St. Luke's Hospital where the Minister has invested in a psychiatric unit. Funding should be provided for an old people's home and an outreach centre where patients can recuperate following an operation.
The approach roads from Carlow and Kilkenny to Belview port are inadequate and should be improved to allow easier access.
I wish to share time with Deputies Finucane and Crawford.
Acting Chairman
Is that agreed? Agreed.
The 1999 budget is a budget of contrasts, good for some but bad for others. It is good on income tax reform but bad on tackling poverty. The income tax system will be fairer as a result. More resources will be available to the elderly and the number entitled to claim carer's allowance will increase. There will not be a significant reduction, however, in the number living in poverty while hospital waiting lists, local authority housing lists, adult illiteracy and rural exclusion will remain untackled.
There is an extraordinary failure to understand the plight of those on social welfare. There is, however, a great understanding of the plight of the bookie whose clients are succumbing to the lure of offshore tax free telephone betting.
The low-paid and pensioners are only worth an extra £6 a week. The qualifying age for old age pension has not been reduced since it was reduced in consecutive years from 70 to 66 by Dr. Garret Fitzgerald. It was envisaged that it would be reduced to 65. There is a general increase of a miserable £3 a week. This is the equivalent of 45p a day.
The Deputy's party granted an increase of £1.50.
These increases will not be paid until June. Why can they not be paid from the first week of January? Some of the increases will not be paid until October. Who is codding who?
Child benefit is to be increased by £3 a month or 10p a day in respect of the first and second child and £4 or 16p a day in respect of subsequent children. It would not buy a lollipop. These increases will not be paid until September. The increases in unemployment assistance, adult allowances, maternity and adoptive benefit and family income supplement will not be paid until June. I hope he will rectify this and listen to what I have to say. He should not cod the public. What is he budgeting for? Some provisions will not come into effect for a number of months, yet tax increases were implemented on the night of the budget. A packet of 20 cigarettes was increased by 5p. In addition, the increase in VRT will soon reduce the cars on the road to cocoa tins because nobody will be able to afford to buy decent cars. The fatal crashes which occur would not happen if there were good, solid and sound vehicles on the road. Does the Minister not realise that his measure will add to the numbers killed on the roads in the coming years?
There are more cars on the road than ever before.
The Minister of State gets a good allowance in respect of his car while Ministers have the use of Mercedes cars.
Deputy McGuinness said this was a good budget for getting young people to return to the land. Who is he codding? Everybody knows that application rates to agricultural colleges throughout the country have dropped considerably and that the youth have no interest in taking up farming because there is no future in it. At a presentation in west Cork a year ago last June, the Minister said that he would not be in office four months before he would reintroduce the farm installation grants. He is now 20 months in power and this has not happened.
No farmer, farming community or farming body I know of was popping champagne corks on the night of the budget because they had nothing to be thankful for. This was a dull, dreary budget as far as the farming community is concerned.
That is not what Tom Parlon said.
He thought there was something in the budget until he read the details, he then realised his mistake.
There are applications for water and sewerage schemes from my county council in Cork lying dormant in the Minister's office for the past 15 years. They are now accumulating dust, yet no progress has been made on giving them clearance because the Minister only caters for constituencies which are of special concern to him and which are probably represented by Independent Deputies who will prop up the Government because of the kudos they get. However, one, two or five constituencies does not make a country and the Minister will have to explain his conduct to the rest of the public.
There was an office in Cork County Council for 15 years. Why did the Deputy not do something then?
I hope the Minister will consider the points I have made when he is preparing the Finance Bill. I ask him to increase the benefits allocated to the poor, unfortunate and underprivileged and to at least bring them forward to 1 April. I see no reason they could not be brought forward to 1 January. If he had so much money to give away why did he not put it where his mouth should be? I cannot understand why he is delaying the payment of these increases by nine months. It is a deplorable attitude for a Minister for Finance and a Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs to adopt.
Given the economic buoyancy, there has never been greater expectations of a budget. The surplus of more than £1 billion did not come about by accident. Tribute should be paid to the previous Government for ensuring that the economy progressed so well. In view of the buoyancy it has been possible to introduce a tax credit system, which my party has advocated over a considerable period of time but which needed the kind of funding that is now available. I welcome that as a positive move.
I do not want to dwell on the social welfare points made by the previous speaker. However, the increase in benefits by 3 per cent is not compatible with the kind of economy that is in place. While many people have returned to work recently many others are unemployed and still cannot get jobs. Many on the liver register have literacy problems. Attempts are made to get them on community employment projects or training courses, yet the most fundamental skill they require is the ability to read and write.
It would be worth analysing this cohort of people to ascertain the numbers who have difficulties in this area. Even if special training programmes have to be funded they should be provided to give them the ability to read and write. This would improve their job chances enormously. There is a tendency in many cases for them to drift into schemes, return to them the following and subsequent years and then end up on the live register again. We often massage the figures by taking people off the liver register only to push them back onto it again. If the Government addressed this issue positive benefits would follow.
Many motorists, especially owners of family saloons, will be bitterly disappointed with the provisions on VRT. The SIMI organised extensive lobbying around the country and we were all invited to meetings. I attended a meeting in Limerick and the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Deputy O'Dea, was thanked for taking time from his busy schedule to meet the organisation. I am sure it was happy and confident that, with the Celtic tiger roaring, it would win concessions such as a reduction in VRT.
The reaction of the SIMI to the budget was understandable. When we entered the Common Market there was an anticipation that car prices would fall. Those of us who have followed the English tabloids over the weekend and see the cars available in the UK will be envious, especially when the prices are compared with those prevailing in this country. While tax credits may be provided, many people must travel to work by car. Those who made an order to take delivery of a car next January were probably bitterly disappointed when garages requested an extra £600 in view of the changes announced in the budget. I anticipate that the SIMI will engage in intensive lobbying prior to the Finance Act. The matter should be addressed because I find it difficult to reconcile it with the decision by the Minister to reduce betting taxes. References were made to telephone betting, betting on the Isle of Man and the need to save charges. However, the Minister's decision was regressive and contrasts with the VRT provisions.
Provision was made regarding water and sewerage schemes for small villages and towns. Previous speakers were correct in saying all Members could speak about specific sewerage schemes needed in the rural communities they represent. Leader funding and other appropriate funding under community employment schemes and so on often create a buzz in a community. Footpaths may be widened and trees planted, but improvement works in respect of a sewerage scheme is often the most fundamental project required to bring life and vibrancy back to a community. We often put the cart before the horse in this regard. The provision of or improvement works in respect of a sewerage scheme is often the most important project required when one talks about building a primary school and houses. With the £50 million that has been allocated for this, I hope that over the next few years we can provide the necessary sewerage schemes. The Government should focus on providing such schemes in the counties which it is projected will not be eligible for Objective One status after 2000. That would be something positive in that direction.
The people in the constituency I represent are extremely bitter about the position regarding Objective One status. My constituency is contiguous to Kerry and Clare, but it has been precluded from the group of counties for which Objective One status is being sought. I hope a proposal will be put forward by my council to ensure that under its development plan, the county, which has been unfairly excluded from the counties for which Objective One status is being sought, will be given extra support. I refer to a type of urban taxation package. The Shannon scheme was referred to earlier and I understand the Minister is seeking EU sanction for a scheme. If he were to broaden such a scheme, he should consider Limerick West as a natural constituency for inclusion.
Members have dwelt on the position of farmers. Many farmers in parts of Limerick West were eligible to claim under the fodder scheme. During the summer months I and other Members visited many of the farms affected and saw at first hand the difficulties experienced by them. Many farmers, some of whom had suffered damage and fodder loss in excess of £1,000, were disappointed that the maximum funding available under the scheme was £300. However, that decision has been made and we cannot change it.
It is unfortunate it is not proposed to introduce a farm assist scheme until next June. Given the difficulties farmers are experiencing, many of them may be driven out of farming by that time. If a cohort of approximately 8,000 farmers currently avail of the farmers' dole, it is anticipated that up to 14,000 farmers would be eligible to claim it. A recent study undertaken by Dr. Jim Phelan identified that more than 70,000 farmers earn less than £156 per week. It is worth bearing that figure in mind because it will have serious implications in regard to whether farmers will decide to stay on the land. If we have a current crisis in farming, a mechanism to address it should be put in place quickly. The means of farmers should be investigated and if they are entitled to additional funding which will be available next year, such funding should be provided now when it is urgently required.
I thank my colleagues for sharing their time with me. I, like my colleague, Deputy O'Hanlon, who represents Cavan-Monaghan, welcome the budget, though probably for different reasons. Its provisions will do something to help people on low and middle incomes, which my party suggested was the right way to proceed. That is especially welcome in an area like Cavan-Monaghan where many people are employed in the furniture and fruit industries. Workers in those industries are not as highly paid as those in hi-tech industry. They will welcome the move in the budget to increase personal allowances and improve the income tax bases. In last year's budget a person on an average wage got an increase of £2.50 while a person earning £55,000 got an increase of £12.50, but the balance has been redressed this year, and that is welcome.
However this year's budget has increased the discrimination in the tax system against the self-employed and farmers. A single PAYE worker can earn £100 tax free, but a person who is self-employed, such as a carpenter, electrician, shopkeeper or farmer, can only earn £80.77 tax free. A married PAYE worker whose spouse does not work outside the home can earn £180.77 tax free, but if that person was self-employed he could only earn £161 tax free. That is a significant loss for thousands of people in Cavan-Monaghan who, traditionally, have been enterprising and self-employed. This discrimination in the tax system should be eliminated immediately as it is stifling and unfair to the self-employed.
The rural and urban renewal schemes were announced in last year's budget, but they have not been implemented. I welcome the commitment given by the Minister here last Wednesday to do something about that and to bring forward the introduction of those schemes or at least the rural renewal scheme. Even more than that, I welcome his preparedness to extend those schemes. It is essential such schemes are extended to include areas such as Cavan-Monaghan and the Border counties which have suffered significantly from the Troubles during the last 30 years. I welcome the move in that direction.
The increase of £6 in the old age pension and £3 in respect of a spouse or partner is welcome, but how can the Minister explain to those with a disability or in receipt of invalidity benefit why in the last two budgets he has discriminated against them? A person with a disability will only get an increase of £3, while an old age pensioner, who may be fit and able to do another job, will get an increase of £6. At a time when £1.4 million was available, persons with a disability, a handicap and those who are invalids should get as much, if not more, than those who could earn a little extra.
Deputy McGuinness said that farmers will have a great time and that they will come back into farming. Why would they do that? Pigs are now 40p a kilo, but farmers could get £1.40 a kilo for pigs a few years ago. Cattle cannot be sold. I agree that the £11 million in respect of the VAT increase is valuable, but unless the Minister and the Government get off their backsides and get better prices for the products we produce, we will be in trouble.
The failure of the Government to introduce the FIS means that nothing can be done to help farm families who have been badly hit and who are trying to cope in the Christmas season. The best we can hope for is that the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Social Community and Family Affairs will introduce a social welfare Bill as quickly as possible and ensure that the day that Bill is passed this new botched up farmers' dole scheme will be implemented immediately. Many farm families want money now, not next winter.
I welcome the change in the carer's allowance whereby a carer who lives adjacent to the person he or she cares for will be eligible for the allowance. I hope the small print in the social welfare legislation will not impede that change in eligibility for the allowance. The rainbow coalition Government provided an increase from £50 to £150 over two years in the amount a spouse could earn which would not be counted in respect of income assessed for eligibility for the carer's allowance, but that figure has not been increased in the past two years. The other provisions are a help, but it would have been of real benefit if the threshold had been increased. The change in medical cards is also welcome. It will allow those over 70 years of age to benefit from an increased income allowance.
Debate adjourned.