Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, recently did a very detailed update on environmental issues. Across almost 50 measures there has been substantial progress and success in a range of areas. We will continue, as long as we are in office, to implement these measures.

There is a long list of actions taken to improve road safety. On the particular matter mentioned by Deputy Sargent about looking at building road safety into the schools programme, particularly for transition year, I am not sure of the exact position but it is still being developed and examined to try to make the actual driving end of it part of the curriculum for transition year students, rather than just what happens at present where it is part of the education system with road safety lectures and films and so on. I think there is potential to do that.

The point I made on medical cards and the doctor-only medical card figures was that, after three significant campaigns, if the income levels were below the ratios, people would have taken up the cards. People who are suffering poverty or difficulties have full medical cards. There has been a low number of doctor-only cards but this has to mean that the income levels did not fulfil the criteria, even though the figures at the time would have shown that we should have taken in an enormous amount. Even after three campaigns that has not been the case. Those income figures also apply to a number of other areas in social welfare.

On social housing, it is correct to say that in the 1970s we built proportionally more social housing against the total but let us be honest, the answer to that is that people were leaving the country at a rate of knots and there was hardly any private housing. In one year — I think it was 1983 or 1984 — out of 24,000 houses built about six were built in the public sector. That is because we had 20% unemployment and emigration was running at 50,000 a year. The position now is that out of 90,000 new houses, first-time buyers buy about half or 45% of those. It is an entirely different position. This year, between one scheme and another in affordable housing, we are proportionally benefiting a very high number of people but proportionate against 90,000. That is only playing with figures if we are honest.

On a general point, across the range of Government services, whether it is taxation — where we have cut the standard rate of income tax from 27% to 20% and the top rate from 48% to 42%; the entry point to the tax system is now €300; earners are exempt in huge numbers; and people on low pay are not paying any tax — or in education including the range of services and school buildings, the number of teachers, special needs teachers, home liaison teachers etc., the Government has substantially delivered on a very demanding programme. It has been able to do that at a time when we were still able to cut the national debt, still have Government surpluses, still be able to avoid paying huge amounts of money on interest and put money away for the social welfare difficulties of the future when we will have an older community. That has been an enormous success and is recognised as such inside and outside this country.

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