Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Today, we have another strategy, the child care strategy. Most of the earlier strategies are in ruins because they could not go beyond the promise and rhetoric to the point of delivery.

The Exchequer returns for any month for the past two years tell the same story. In general, there is an underspend in regard to capital funds. How can the Government credibly claim to have a €35 billion public transport plan when it cannot spend its allocation on transport six years into a seven-year national development plan? The idea that the Government will be able to ramp up spending to the level suggested in the transport plan is nothing short of ludicrous. All the large strategy documents and slick presentations will not hide the fact that the Government is incapable of delivering capital projects on time and within budget. The Government, through this budget, asks people to make a leap of faith. We are expected to believe it can now get to grips with problems it has failed to overcome for years, and that it will do it all in a year or even six months. To believe this, one would need to enter Narnia through Bertie's magic wardrobe and seek the help of Aslan the lion to break the spell of failure and deceit that hangs over the Government.

There are many workers on their way home as we speak, stuck in the circle of hell that surrounds Dublin called the West Link Bridge. Billions of euro are allocated to the national transport plan but it does not even mention the West Link Bridge. We pay some of the most expensive road tolls in Europe for the largest traffic jam in Europe. No help is at hand in this regard. The national transport strategy did not even mention the humble bus. The Government is too elevated for buses.

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