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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 9 Dec 2015

Vol. 900 No. 1

Estimates for Public Services 2015

I move the following Supplementary Estimates:

Vote 6 – Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €1,500,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2015, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Chief State Solicitor.

Vote 7 – Office of the Minister for Finance (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €1,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2015, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Finance, including the Paymaster-General’s Office, for certain services administered by the Office of the Minister and for payment of certain grants.

Vote 12 – Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €16,770,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2015, for pensions, superannuation, occupational injuries, and additional and other allowances and gratuities under the Superannuation Acts 1834 to 2004 and sundry other statutes; extra-statutory pensions, allowances and gratuities awarded by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, fees to medical referees and occasional fees to doctors; compensation and other payments in respect of personal injuries; fees to Pensions Board; miscellaneous payments, etc.

Vote 17 – Public Appointments Service (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €380,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2015, for the salaries and expenses of the Public Appointments Service.

Vote 20 – Garda Síochána (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €35,200,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2015, for the salaries and expenses of the Garda Síochána, including pensions, etc.; for the payment of certain witnesses’ expenses, and for payment of certain grants.

Vote 21 – Prisons (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €6,297,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2015, for the salaries and expenses of the Prison Service, and other expenses in connection with prisons, including places of detention; for probation services; and for payment of certain grants.

Vote 26 – Education and Skills (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €175,000,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2015, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Education and Skills, for certain services administered by that Office, and for the payments of certain grants.

Vote 29 – Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €1,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2015, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, including certain services administered by that Office, and for payment of certain grants, and for the payment of certain grants under cash-limited schemes.

Vote 30 – Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €104,000,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2015, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, including certain services administered by that Office, and of the Irish Land Commission and for payment of certain grants, subsidies and sundry grants and for the payment of certain grants under cash-limited schemes and the remediation of Haulbowline Island.

Vote 31 – Transport, Tourism and Sport (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €100,000,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2015, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, including certain services administered by that Office, for payment of certain grants and certain other services.

Vote 32 — Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €50,000,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2015, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, including certain services administered by that Office, for the payment of certain subsidies and grants and for the payment of certain grants under cash-limited schemes.

Vote 37 — Social Protection (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €299,000,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2015, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Social Protection, for certain services administered by that Office, for payments to the Social Insurance Fund and for certain grants.

Vote 38 — Health (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €600,000,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2015, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Health and certain other services administered by that Office, including grants to the Health Service Executive and miscellaneous grants.

Vote 40 — Children and Youth Affairs (Supplementary).

That a supplementary sum not exceeding €15,000,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2015, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, for certain services administered by that Office and for the payment of grants including certain grants under cash-limited schemes.

Budget 2016 set the expenditure forecast outturn at €54.9 billion. This figure included provision for gross Supplementary Estimates of €1.6 billion, which have now been debated at the relevant committees and are returning to this House today. The net forecast figure for the Supplementary Estimates - the gross figure minus moneys received in appropriations-in-aid, such as PRSI and pension contributions - set out in the expenditure report on budget day was just under €1.3 billion. These figures were entirely consistent with Ireland's obligations under the Stability and Growth Pact. As colleagues understand, Supplementary Estimates confer legal authority on Departments to expend money based on their best estimate of the year-end requirements. Departments are not allowed to exceed their Supplementary Estimate figure but in some cases it is not reached. As a result, the agreed Supplementary Estimates figure can sometimes overstate the actual year-end requirement. It is obviously better to have a buffer of some level than to run out of money.

I am pleased to report that the current forecast on outturn, which is provisional and will remain so until the final figures are in, is set to be in the region of €100 million in gross terms lower than the forecast in the expenditure report. How does this impact upon the public finances? The general Government deficit target for this year under the excessive deficit procedure is 2.9% of GDP, as Deputies will know. Budget 2015 set the deficit target of 2.7%. In the interim, both November and October saw tax receipts greatly exceed profile. The vast bulk of these receipts are sustainable, as confirmed in recent correspondence between the Revenue Commissioners and the Minister for Finance. Accordingly, based on the most recent data available, the end-of-year budget deficit forecast for this year will be in the region of 1.7% of GDP. This will obviously feed into the starting position for next year. It represents a remarkable turnaround on where we were when the Government took office almost five years ago. This improved economic position has allowed the Government to target additional expenditure in areas experiencing increased demand and demographic pressure. I am pleased we are in a position to do that.

It would be useful to put the increases provided in the Supplementary Estimates into context. In order to repair the public finances, gross voted expenditure was reduced from over €63 billion in 2009 to €54 billion in 2014. At the same time, while expenditure was being reduced, demographic and other cost pressures arising from increased demand for services still had to be met.

The Supplementary Estimates for 2015 allow for additional expenditure to be directed in particular towards the key areas of health, education and social protection. Funding is provided towards a summer works scheme to allow work to be carried out on schools that have been in need of refurbishment. There is funding for the IDA to support jobs in the regions and the regional programme we set out. There are further capital funds for the science and technology programme and the programme for research in third level institutions; a Christmas bonus for recipients of long-term social welfare payments; and funding in the health sector for the delayed discharge initiative, the fair deal scheme, the hospital waiting lists, the winter initiative and the rolling out of universal general practitioner services. There is additional expenditure on the public transport investment programme for the maintenance of the heavy rail network and the expansion of the PSO bus fleet, and on the roads programme to address critical works on the national road infrastructure and improve substandard paving on regional and local roads. The adverse weather of recent times will make the latter allocation all the more necessary. The additional expenditure provided by way of Supplementary Estimate represents a responsible approach towards ensuring public services are adequately funded to meet the Government's key social and economic objectives of protecting the vulnerable and creating economic conditions to support growth in employment.

I am pleased to contribute to this debate on the Supplementary Estimates, which are additional record Supplementary Estimates from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin. His Department was set up to reform public expenditure but the only reform he has achieved was to ensure no adequate budgeting at the beginning of each year. In the last fortnight of every year since taking office, he comes into the Chamber to seek an ever-increasing Supplementary Estimate to back up the flawed Estimate announced in the Budget Statement.

The Supplementary Estimates are really being introduced because of the content of the Budget Statement of 12 months ago. That statement was one of the clearest examples in five years of the total capitulation of the Labour Party to Fine Gael. The budget could have been summarised in one sentence: if one was on over €70,000, one got a tax cut and was better off. The choices made in the budget 12 months ago for 2015 meant that there were tax cuts for the high-income earners. That was done at the expense of people who needed serious support, such as the critically ill and those requiring suicide prevention measures, as recently mentioned by Deputy Derek Keating. I refer also to career guidance teachers in schools and homeless people.

We had a big debate on homelessness and the housing crisis around the time the Estimates were going through last year. The Labour Party lost that debate because there had to be a 1% income tax cut for the top earners. However, as the year progressed we were very fortunate that Ireland received a bonanza increase in corporation tax revenue from the foreign multinationals. Without it we could not have addressed some of the aforementioned matters in the last couple of months in the year. We have to thank the companies that chose to act as they did for a reason utterly unknown to the Minister for Finance or anybody else in the Government. While we have the additional revenue, the problem is that the Minister is not only increasing expenditure for this year but also for next year by the same amount as in these Supplementary Estimates. He will build on that. Although the Government has criticised previous regimes for using the mantra "If we have it we will spend it," it is using that mantra to a scale never envisaged before. It has got the extra money and, since there is an upcoming election, it is saying it will increase expenditure for 2015 and have any amount of money for 2016. It is saying it has it so it will spend it; that is the essence of what is happening. Today is just one little element of the Government's plan to spend the extra €7 billion that is coming our way. Some of this revenue arises from the increase in corporation tax revenue that we cannot explain. The other element is substantially a consequence of the programme the Government inherited and which it operated in full for three years to put the country back on its feet.

The financial position may have improved but I take issue with some of the choices made by the Government in the past year or two. While Supplementary Estimates to provide additional money for Departments are welcome, the Office of Public Works, which comes within the remit of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, has not spent, nor is it projected to spend, all the money allocated to it by the Oireachtas for flood relief last year. Despite nationwide flooding, the Department will probably roll over or return to the Department of Finance capital funding it did not spend this year. At the same time, the Minister is before the House today seeking approval for a Supplementary Estimate. Deputies take the budgetary process seriously. If we agree to allocate the Office of Public Works money to spend on flood relief, we expect the office to do its job in this area. It was the responsibility of the Minister to ensure the money was spent.

Major problems have arisen with the Government's management of this year's expenditure programme. While I welcome additional funding for services, my principal difficulty with the Supplementary Estimates is that the €600 million in additional funding for the Heath Service Executive should have been provided in January 2015. This would have enabled the HSE to plan the provision of health services for the 12 months of this year in an orderly and efficient manner and avoided some of the problems that have occurred in the health service in the past year. Having told the HSE its budget would be restricted and no further allocation would be made this year, hey presto, as we reach December, the Government proposes to provide an additional €600 million to enable the HSE to meet overruns. It has been told to spend this money as quickly as possible before the end of the year. One of the reasons for the crisis in the health service is the lack of proper budgeting. While the Supplementary Estimates are welcome, the funding provided should have been included in the original Vote to allow for proper and planned expenditure during the year as opposed to rushing to spend it in the final fortnight of 2015.

I have noticed in many of the Minister's public pronouncements of late that he attempts to make a virtue, as he sees it, of increased and ahead-of-profile tax returns while keeping a firm reign on public expenditure. The Minister paints this position as one that reflects prudence in his governance. Listening to him, one would never believe he was a Minister in a Government that had hacked billions of euro from public services during its time in office. I suggest that rather than boasting that he will continue to starve public services of the resources they need to repair some of the damage inflicted by the Government and modernise and improve access to and the quality of these services, he would be better off arguing for progressive investment. Instead, he toes the quintessentially right-wing, Tory and Fine Gael Party line of small government and low public expenditure. He appears to subscribe fully to the ideology of private wealth and public squalor pursued by Fine Gael, the Labour Party's sister party.

The Supplementary Estimates reflect some of the reality of underinvestment and low spending. The allocation for health is the figure that jumps out most. While Sinn Féin has no objection to additional moneys being provided for the health services where they are needed, one must wonder why, year after year, the Government takes at least two bites out of the health cherry to get the spending profile right. Even with an additional €600 million, the health system will continue to creak and come under pressure. Hospitals will continue to be understaffed and patients, including many elderly people, will continue to wait on trolleys. Those who are not so lucky will sleep on chairs, and when things get really bad, some of them will sleep on the floors of accident and emergency departments.

I always have the sense when the Minister presents figures that it is being done for the optics. While he spins out substantial figures, the reality is that he continues to preside over a system that is massively underfunded. If recent indicators or public positions adopted by the Minister are anything to go by, it appears he hopes and intends to proceed into the next election and Government, if he is so lucky, with the same guiding principles he has demonstrated over the past five years, namely, to look after the haves, deal in a tokenistic fashion with the have-nots and place public services under enormous and unsustainable pressure.

From next year onwards, the Government will no longer have available to it the facility of introducing Supplementary Estimates. I have not heard a convincing answer from the Minister or any other member of the Government how this will work out. I foresee difficulties, however, because the Government's record on forecasting and getting the numbers right is not a terribly good one. If the Minister has an opportunity to respond, I ask him to sketch out how health, social protection and education services will be able to stand on their feet and have the budgets they require to function in the absence of the release valve of the Supplementary Estimate.

These Supplementary Estimates are a belated recognition, prompted by a looming general election, that one of the major slogans deployed by the Government in its first years in office was completely bogus. I do not know if the Minister remembers the slogan that we would get more for less but it was repeated ad nauseam when the Government was inflicting the most savage and cruel cuts in vital public services and supports and infrastructural and capital spending. Its claim that it was a reforming Government that would get more for less was a complete fallacy. The most obvious place in which this fallacy has been exposed is the health service where the slashing of budgets, staff numbers and investment has led to a diabolical position in which we have unacceptable waiting lists of up to two years for people in chronic pain who need operations, while tens of thousands of other people in hopeless and desperate circumstances must wait for procedures and many others must lie on trolleys for days on end. That is the legacy of the more for less fallacy the Government has promoted.

Another major area in which the more for less fallacy has been exposed is housing. How wrong can a Government be? It has managed to generate the worst housing crisis in the history of the State by butchering and effectively stopping investment and spending on social housing. We are now paying a heavy price for this failure and the lack of sufficient investment in flood relief, drainage and water infrastructure generally. All these chickens are coming home to roost.

Did the Deputy refer to investment in water infrastructure?

I referred to underinvestment.

In recent years, we argued that the Government could get the money to obviate the need for cuts from a number of sources, including the corporate sector through corporation tax.

What we proposed was dismissed as rubbish and it was said that it would threaten our national economy. We could not say "boo" to the multinationals. It was only because a small number of people on this side of the House persisted in saying there was an absolute scandal in the area of corporate tax and pointing out that companies were not paying even close to 12.5%, and because of international criticism over the tax haven role Ireland was playing in facilitating aggressive tax avoidance, that eventually and begrudgingly the Government was pushed into beginning to move with the international tide to clamp down on aggressive tax avoidance by the multinationals.

Lo and behold then, the pot of gold the Minister said did not exist suddenly appeared - the unexplained €2 billion in extra corporate tax receipts which the Minister laughably claims is to do with a surge in sales. I absolutely refute that. It has nothing to do with a surge in sales. I defy the Government to provide the evidence for that. Perhaps the Minister can do that for us. Perhaps he can provide us with the monthly breakdowns of the corporate tax rates for this year, which we always receive several years behind, so that we can discover the real picture on corporate tax, the profits being made and the sudden appearance of an extra €2 billion.

I am very glad some of this money is being put into extra spending in the areas the Government has butchered over the past number of years. However, is this just a pre-election stunt or is there any intention to go after all of the corporate tax money so that we have the resources to recover the massive butchering of budgets the Government has implemented over the past five years? I do not believe the Minister has the will to do that, because I think this is a pre-election stunt.

Votes put and agreed to.
Sitting suspended at 1.32 p.m. and resumed at 2.32 p.m.
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