Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)

I am delighted to have an opportunity to speak on the budget. It was an attempt to try to please everybody but it has pleased nobody. It was extremely unimaginative.

The child care provisions were a knee-jerk reaction to voters' concerns on the doorsteps of the commuter belts of Meath and Kildare. Most of these people, and homeowners everywhere, will still be reeling from the extortionate stamp duty rates on their homes. As the reality of their slightly improved circumstances sinks in, they will quickly face the challenge of rising child care costs. As my colleague, Deputy Bruton, said yesterday, this was a blatant attempt at a give-back to overtaxed and long-suffering middle and low income earners who have seen their salaries attacked from all sides by stealth taxes. In reality this budget has failed to tackle the many key problems of modern living, not just in the congested, overcrowded gridlock of the east coast but in all regions of the country where the centralised policies of the past nine years of this Government have left a legacy of under-investment, economic imbalance and rural decline.

Much has been made of the €150 million package to old age pensioners, but that is less than the amount spent on the PPARS wastage. As some of my colleagues pointed out yesterday, the benefits of this will not emerge immediately in 2006 but over an unspecified period. In my constituency many pensioners will give a qualified welcome to the pension increases of between €14 and €16 per week but will know that the value of such an amount will quickly vanish with the price increases of rip-off Ireland. The increase is a miserly nod to the very people who built up this State and have contributed over the decades as taxpayers. The Minister said that this increase puts his Government well on target for reaching the €200 per week mark by 2007. Obviously that is the election year but it would be much more welcome if the Government had reached its target in 2006 to help the many vulnerable people cope with rip-off Ireland.

Only this morning a constituent rang me at my office in Clare welcoming the increase in the carer's allowance from €153 to €180 but wondering where the job security was for this undervalued service. It keeps elderly people in their homes, provides them with company and comfort, frees up essential spaces in our nursing homes, contributes to a sense of local community and provides a modest measure of local employment. I had no answer for that person. He must soldier on, providing his essential service while the Government makes other noises in the House. Meanwhile rural Ireland continues to suffer. Just last week "Prime Time" highlighted the anti-social behaviour in rural towns. What has happened to the 2,000 extra gardaí promised by this Government? As usual, they are just a promise.

What has happened to the budget for fighting crime? Why can the extra gardaí I sought in this House from the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform not be deployed to Kilrush to fight the problem there with anti-social behaviour?

A decent level of public transport for rural areas in the west would also have arrested decline. Transport 21 seems already to be gathering dust in the office of the Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen. My colleague, Deputy Olivia Mitchell, pointed out that just €1.5 billion a year has been put aside for Transport 21, a plan that has been estimated to cost €35 billion. Meanwhile the Minister remains coy about the cost of upgrading the western rail corridor. It is generally believed that it will cost well over €300 million, less than 1% of the €34 billion promised by the Government to be spent on projects in the west. What provision has been made for applying meaningful transport policies to the west and what will the projected spend be? I tabled a number of parliamentary questions on this but have received very little in the way of answers.

I see that the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has joined us. I hope there will be meaningful change for people in small enterprises which are important and are the way forward for this country. We should have put more emphasis on small enterprises to boost not just the west but the whole of the country. A colleague from County Clare tabled a question on the number of new jobs created by IDA Ireland in the county in the past seven years. The answer was seven. The Government's commitment to job creation in the small business sector is disappointing in the extreme. It has failed to provide the incentive to boost indigenous business, the backbone of our rural economy, or to provide the training or educational opportunities for employees. The VAT threshold increases fall far short of what was sought by the lobby groups and well short of what the UK provides.

Overall, the broadening of the PAYE tax bands is welcome, but yet again a Fianna Fáil Minister for Finance has failed to tackle the issue of indexing the tax bands. The benefits will again be eroded by inflation and price increases as wage rises meet these costs.

Much has been said on the creation of fourth level education but where is the investment in our primary sector to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio? Only two weeks ago in Ennis, 600 people turned out to protest at the pupil-teacher ratio in schools throughout County Clare. We need to bring our schools up to a decent modern standard to give our children a decent start in life. Those over six might well be concerned after yesterday's budget because without a voice, they have failed once again to receive their due. Will their parents remember this come election time?

Accident and emergency services are under extreme pressure throughout the country. The accident and emergency services in Ennis General Hospital were promised €20 million over recent years but nothing will happen for maybe two years yet. Only last week I tabled a question on a CAT scanner, which is an essential part of a modern hospital, but was told once again it would depend on funding and budgets.

Most speakers have referred to decentralisation. We know that very few people want to go to Shannon with Enterprise Ireland. Kilrush is oversubscribed — 66 people have put their names down to transfer — but they are not from the Revenue Commissioners. However I welcome the fact that they want to live in Kilrush because it will boost the town at a time when it has developed something of a bad name.

From what we could gather yesterday, the budget was predictable and bears the hallmark of a Government that has run out of fresh ideas and is limping on until the next election in 2007. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, will have another attempt to fool the people but he will not succeed because they are tired of this Government and want change.

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