John Bruton (Meath, Fine Gael)

The Minister will be aware of many of the cases of which I am aware in our constituency, namely, of families which are in serious difficulty. I am aware of a case where the mother in question must go into the school each day to provide extra assistance to her son because no special classroom assistant is provided. She has being doing so for the past four or five years and has come to the view that at this stage, a classroom assistant other than herself would be the right person to do the job because of the evolution natural in a relationship between a child and its mother as the child grows older. That is just one of many cases which I have brought to the Minister's attention and of which he is no doubt well aware.

While I understand the Minister and the Government cannot give categorical, legally binding assurances as to the availability of funds, is there any possibility that multi-annual funding could be earmarked for this type of need which would be separate from the normal annual budgeting the Government does? As the Minister is well aware, budgets are currently framed one year at a time. There are three-year perspectives but they have no particular legal force when adopted here. My understanding is that, as part of the Stability and Growth Pact, the European Union is asking governments to present multiannual budgets so it will have a better understanding and can judge compliance by countries to their requirements under the pact. That would ensure that countries do not enter into commitments in one year that are not capable of being met within a similar allocation in subsequent years.

In the context of a reform of the Estimates in order to comply with EU requests, could the Government simultaneously use that as a means of identifying certain types of need, such as the needs of children, as provided for in this Bill, which deserve a multiannual financial projection? That could be accounted for differently from the normal annual projections and would have a certain protection with regard to their financial continuance that would not be enjoyed by other categories of expenditure. Will the Minister consider this matter? I do not expect he will be able to give me an assurance here and now because, of course, this would be a matter for the Minister for Finance and the Government collectively. It might be a productive line of inquiry for the Minister to pursue, however, in the interests of the children concerned, who I know he is sincerely concerned to help.

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