Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

The Minister has not rolled back the tide. I am disappointed that at a time householders and businesses have doubled their borrowings and are exposed to significant pressure from increasing interest rates, more has not been done to address the serious financial issues against which the State must protect. The SSIAs should have been used to copperfasten the financial soundness of ordinary households. The budget should have provided incentives so that people could put this money to good uses such as investing in pensions. A small concession in this regard would have been a win-win scenario because the danger of going the route the Minister has is there will be a major frothy consumer boom over the next 24 months, at the end of which a great deal of money will have been spent, the cost of living will have been driven up and there will be little to show for it in the long term in copperfastening a sound financial base for the State. People have doubled their borrowings since the last election. An increase of only 0.25% in the cost of living will cost ordinary householders approximately €70 per month while an increase of 0.75% will cost €210 per month. That will wipe out everything the Minister has done.

We need to examine what needs to be done to proof ourselves against changing and hardening external environments. No one can have illusions about the change that has happened in the external environment in which Ireland seeks to compete. There is a sharp contrast between the economy Deputy Quinn handed over to Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats in 1997 and the economy the Minister will soon hand back to the rainbow coalition. Superficially, there are many similarities. Employment is increasing rapidly and the budget surplus is healthy, but there are also signs of fragility which cannot be ignored. Approximately 40% of jobs in companies supported by the industrial agencies has been lost since 2000. Many have been replaced but not enough to prevent a sharp decline. Ireland has lost share in its export markets three years in a row. Our export performance is at its worst since 1974 and it is less than a quarter of what is was in the late 1990s.

The problem is that while the construction sector can absorb people and conceal problems in underlying trading sectors, that cannot go on forever. As a small, open economy, we need to survive on the basis of competitive businesses and that is not happening. Ireland's enterprise strategy was once the envy of emerging countries but it is feeling the strain and the cracks are showing. The budget presented an opportunity to address this. Ireland needs a far-reaching reform agenda both in public spending and public policy to deliver value for money. Only 12 months ago, Ministers presented their Estimates to the House with a great flourish. According to the Tánaiste, 230,000 extra medical or doctor cards would be provided but, at best, 10,000 will be provided. A total of 1,000 extra gardaí were to be provided but the latest figure from the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform for November is 90. The accident and emergency department crisis was supposed to be wiped out but latest figures for November highlighted that 360 people were still on trolleys in such departments. Integrated ticketing was to be introduced in Dublin but that still has not happened. While none of these actions was taken, no Minister has taken it on the chin. No one owned up and said, "I got it wrong, I was fooling you this time last year".

It is time Ministers who make commitments become accountable for them. Since 2002 the Minister for Health and Children has demanded a 54% increase in the health budget but fewer people have access to primary care and there is greater chaos in our accident and emergency departments. During the same period, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform demanded a 43% increase in his budget, but there is a greater risk of being assaulted on the street and detection rates have fallen dramatically. Criminal gangs that are supposed to be "stinging, dying wasps" are still stalking the streets. The Minister for Transport has received a 79% increase in his budget but, in that time, the number of people using public transport has only increased by 3% and nothing has happened regarding long promised reforms. Is that good value for money? This spending has cost every household an extra €3,000 over the past four years. There is no value in it.

I welcome the Minister's proposal to make the Estimates procedure more open. However, he should examine the indicators he said would drive performance. Under the heading, Making it Happen in the Fianna Fáil election manifesto, the Taoiseach pledged: "We will put in place a streamlined process of public expenditure reviews; we will publish a timetable of reviews within six months". The idea was great.

Every three years we were to have a rolling programme where every item of public spending and every programme would be evaluated.

What might one expect for 2005? We should have seen one third examined but that could not happen because the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children declared she was too busy reforming to have any assessment of her spending done. Her colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Finance with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, said he was too busy with decentralisation to have any assessment of value for money in his Department. We are whittled back to what is left, perhaps 75%, so we could have expected 25% of spending to be scrutinised. The Minister for Education and Science did nothing. No study was completed by the Ministers for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Transport, Finance, Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Defence or Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, so we are back to just 8%. However, even 8% was too much. The sum total of completed scrutinies by this Government under its expenditure review came to 0.5% of Government spending. The Taoiseach has certainly made it happen as far as expenditure review is concerned.

One cannot expect us to greet with great delight the promise we will see performance indictors in two years' time. It is not good enough. What the Government should do is honour commitments it already made to the public several years ago.

Unfortunately, one will not find "The X Factor" in this budget. All we have is the same old faces reassembled warbling a cover version of that jaded 2002 hit, a lot done, more to do. It is a bit like the relaunch of Take That, only it is probably a relaunch of Take That, pay later because that is really what the public has got used to. The cheeky lead singer has gone off to pursue a solo career in Europe and we are left with an alternative which is perhaps less Robbie Williams and more Ozzy Osbourne. The champagne and party time has gone. There a few modern lyrics, including lyrics on child care, but the truth is the Government is not up to it. "The X Factor" is not there. It is time to vote the Government out.

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