Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The Estimates represent more of the same from a tired Government, bankrupt of ideas and too long in power. It is spending moneys but has no strategy for equality and delivering public services in a more equitable and efficient way. The Estimates and budget will be the last before the general election. The Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government will be ten years in office next year. It needs to be judged, not on the Estimates nor on the forthcoming budget but on its record in the past decade.

After ten years the health system is still mired in crisis; housing is unaffordable for tens of thousands of families; and inequality and poverty are still with us, despite the Celtic tiger. The key question is whether revenue is being properly directed at addressing deficiencies in public services and at helping those who have benefited least from the economic boom of recent years.

Headline figures do not tell the full story. The question for many Departments is not how much money they spend, but the extent to which money is wasted, subsidising the private sector through public private partnerships and an unjust two-tier health system. Sinn Féin has called for the Comptroller and Auditor General to examine all existing PPP projects for cost overruns, revenue forgone and wastage against long-term cost and profit projections. We reiterate this call, as we face the huge cost of buying out the PPP contract for the West Link toll bridge.

For Sinn Féin, during this time of affluence, the priority must be using the additional revenue available to the Government to address the plight of those who have been left behind, those on housing waiting lists, those most vulnerable to heat and electricity price rises and those surviving on social welfare payments, inadequate to keep them out of poverty. We will have to wait until budget day to see if the Minister will make any significant commitments to them.

The 10% increase for local authority and social housing programmes is not significant when one considers house price inflation has been running at approximately 15%. It will not advance in any meaningful way towards the elimination of social housing waiting lists. The additional revenue which has flowed into the State's coffers as a result of the construction boom has not been used to eliminate social housing waiting lists. This revenue stream is unsustainable in the long run. A portion of it must be ring-fenced for addressing the needs of those who have borne the brunt of the escalation of house prices and the underbuild in the social housing sector.

The State continues to pay out many millions annually in rent allowance, most of which goes straight into the pockets of private landlords. This week a constituent of mine seeking rent allowance was informed she would only receive it if she could access accommodation with a rent of €80 per week or less. What kind of accommodation can be accessed for that rent in the Ireland of 2006? This is the plight to which those on low incomes and in need of housing are condemned by the Government's lack of a real housing policy. Instead of providing social and affordable housing, it prefers to subsidise the property speculators, the developers and the private landlords.

There is no indication in the Estimates that the Minister for Finance is prioritising help for those under pressure as a result of energy price increases, nor is he prioritising the promotion of energy efficiency. While the increase for the energy research and development programme is to be welcomed, a focus on helping those faced with huge ESB and gas price hikes is needed. The Estimates should have provided for significant increases in funding for improving energy efficiency in homes and the provision of grant aid for low income households to install renewable heating systems.

While the health budget has again risen, it still continues to be ploughed into an inefficient and inequitable system with two-tier delivery of health care. The best use of facilities in public hospitals is not made because they are shared with the private sector. Many consultants continue to be paid by the State while working in the public and private health care sectors, as the long delayed negotiations with hospital consultants on a new contract continue. There is every indication their privileged position will be maintained.

The two-tier health system with two waiting lists and levels of care will be reinforced by the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, with her private hospital co-location scheme. In reply to a parliamentary question from me last week she confirmed that she intended that contracts for the ten private hospitals on public hospital sites would be signed by the first quarter of 2007. No cost benefit analysis has been carried out on the scheme which has met with widespread opposition. There is no mandate for it. It was not included in the election manifestos of the Progressive Democrats and Fianna Fáil. It was not included in the Government's health strategy or the programme for Government, yet it is being forced through without reference to the Oireachtas in the dying months of the Administration and in the run-up to a general election. This fundamentally flawed scheme must be stopped.

No strategy is in place or special funding allocated for the provision of the additional 3,000 acute hospital beds needed. The HSE claims that number is not needed, while the Minister continues to pay lip-service to the Government's commitment to deliver them. This commitment has been dumped, together with much of the Government's 2001 health strategy, including the primary care strategy with its promised widespread network of primary care centres.

There are many other issues I could raise. Nearly a decade after coming to power the Government has reinforced inequality in society. It deserves to be rejected by the people for that reason alone.

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