Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

It would be better if this issue was placed with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment or some other Department.

The budget makes a start in the area of food and health but given what has happened with the nitrates directive, which will have a serious impact on the pig and poultry sectors, the difficulties in the beef industry, the wipe-out of the beet sector and the implications of the current WTO trade negotiations, it is noteworthy that agriculture and farmers were mentioned only once in the Taoiseach's contribution today. The participation of farmers in social partnership programmes in the future, given what has happened recently, will be very much diminished as time goes on.

We are lucky to live in times of unprecedented good fortune but the challenges we face now are not Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil or Progressive Democrats challenges; they are Ireland's challenges. We have seen that spending alone does not work in terms of dealing with those challenges. Spending must follow fundamental reform. In the next election, people will be seeking a Government that is willing not just to spend, but to act and I give them my word that we will act.

In the programme set out by the Government, its great plan, the problem of sewage disposal in towns and cities was to be eliminated by the end of 2003. That has not happened to any great extent and the Government is very much off the mark. A free travel pass for pensioners throughout Ireland was to be put in place. The programme referred to an all-Ireland free travel scheme for pensioners. That has not happened, nor will it happen now. The programme stated that the Government's intent was to reduce consistent poverty to below 2%. However, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul has recently stated that there has been a 300% increase in people contacting them for help, many of them working people. That speaks for itself. In respect of taxation, the Government's commitment to have only 20% of taxpayers paying at the higher rate is very far off the mark and is unlikely to be achieved. Those on the minimum wage who have been removed from the tax net this year will be back in the net next year. We have had debates here about the failure to deliver the promised 2,000 extra gardaí at a time of unprecedented levels of break-ins, burglaries and vandalism on our streets. Due to the differences between the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, this is an issue that is not being addressed successfully by this Government. The voluntary housing sector was supposed to deliver 4,000 units per annum. In 2002 it produced 1,360, in 2003, 1,617 and in 2004 a little over 1,000.

One of the most scandalous failures of all by this Government relates to class sizes. The programme for Government said the coalition partners would "ensure that the average size of classes for children under nine will be below the international best practice guideline of 20:1". Currently, the average class size is 24, which is one of the highest in the European Union. Approximately 80% of children under nine years of age are in classes of more than 20. A total of 5,000 children are in classes of more than 35, while 73,000 children are in classes of more than 30. The issue is not the pupil-teacher ratio but class sizes. When the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, who appears to be tied down to the unions completely, makes an announcement of the appointment of several hundred extra teachers, it is not related to the increase in population or the impact it will make on class sizes. That is where the problem lies. Teachers, no matter how good they may be, cannot do their job with the resources they have, if they have 30, 35 or more pupils in their classrooms. It is a physical, mental and educational impossibility. That is a fundamental failure of this Government which has not been addressed in this budget.

The budget contains nothing on pre-school learning, which is so important for developing an environment for learning, teaching and acceptance of new ideas. That is not addressed in the budget. While Deputy Cowen referred, at length, to the value of education, the pre-school area is where we have to make our play. His play only relates to a segment of third and fourth level education, which while being fundamentally important, does not deal with the issue of the beginning of the educational journey, in the pre-school and primary school sectors. It is in those two latter sectors that the fundamentals of learning are imparted.

The roads programme was to be implemented by 2006. The toll road from Mullingar to Dublin will be opened next Monday, nine months ahead of schedule. All of the tolls will be paid to the public private partnership company. The road west, which is one of the last roads to be developed is one of the first to be tolled. There is no toll on the road to Wexford, Waterford, Cork or Limerick. However, for those commuting from Mullingar everyday, for example, a husband and wife with different jobs, the new road will cost €1,200 per year.

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