Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

Never has so much money been available to a Government to provide every man, woman and child in this tiny nation of 4 million people with sufficient resources to live in comfort, yet never has so much taxpayers' money been wasted and squandered.

Since the then Minister for Finance, Deputy Quinn, gave us a budget surplus ten years ago, each successive Minister for Finance has had an abundance of riches. Ten years of prosperity should have been harnessed into a great plan to eliminate poverty. Alas, there was no one in Government with a grand vision. The one big initiative of the Government was the setting aside of €2 billion in the national development plan in 2000 for large-scale national, structural and project development in the 37 RAPID or disadvantaged areas throughout the country, rural and urban. Project co-ordinators were employed, communities were mobilised, projects were identified and €2 billion was to be set aside for spending on the programme. It was all smoke and mirrors. It was a lie. Only €5 million was spent on preparatory work up to 2002. When the general election took place in 2002 and the Government was re-elected, the RAPID programme was jettisoned and the €2 billion vanished into thin air. A trickle of dormant accounts funding is all that remains to keep the dream alive — the miserly largesse of the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs that is doled out in smoky committee rooms around the country as the gift of the Minister.

The Progressive Democrats philosophy of the unfettered marketplace became the order of the day and has remained so throughout the past decade. Fianna Fáil has accepted without question the major Progressive Democrats input into the approach to the economy. The reneging on the RAPID programme was the defining moment of ten years of Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government. Instead of endeavouring to build a strong cohesive society, the Government's role has been primarily to facilitate the private sector with tax breaks, to curtail regulation and inspection of product and employment and to deprive the public sector of resources and supports. The Government's policy mantra is straight out of Animal Farm, "Private is good, public is bad."

The ugly face of capitalism is evident in the sale of public lands for private hospitals by the Minister for Health and Children and the sale of local authorities' land banks to private developers and speculators when tens of thousands of households are desperately seeking to acquire homes. There are 60,000 more applicants on the housing list. That is double the level of ten years ago. Profit at all costs is the name of the game. Instead of a caring society we have a vulgar economy.

Meanwhile, gangland killings, drug and alcohol abuse, wanton violence and mindless vandalism destroy the quality of life for many urban communities. The rape of young children, the assassination of a young mother in north County Dublin and the gangland execution of a man in my constituency last week are now common occurrences that were unthinkable ten years ago. I raised the issue of anti-social behaviour on the Adjournment last night. On Sunday morning, the windscreens of 14 cars were smashed in the Stoneybatter-Oxmantown area. A Polish national was beaten up on the same morning. On the previous Wednesday, tyres were slashed in the same area. These types of events are happening on a regular basis the length and breadth of the country and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has nothing except bluff and bluster to offer to deal with it.

The treatment of our elderly in nursing homes is a scandal as is the appalling condition of accident and emergency units for patients throughout the country. These are the real monuments and legacies of the Government. The estimated cost of running the State next year is €54 million. It is a large sum of money but will it make life better for young people who are in need of child care and smaller school classes?

Will it make life better for workers who have to travel increasingly longer distances and spend more hours dealing with congestion on polluted streets to get to work? Will it make life better for young families who cannot afford to buy a home of their own? Will it make life better for people with a disability who cannot access independent living or for the elderly who fear the neglect and inadequacy of nursing home care or the sick who dread the trolleys of the accident and emergency departments, MRSA and the winter vomiting bug on a hospital ward in the coming months?

The Government has wasted and squandered for ten years. These are the real issues that put people before profit, that determine whether a set of Estimates and a new budget benefit society or just the economy, and a certain cosseted section of that society. The Estimates for each Department give some indication of the Government's true intentions. We must wait for the budget to get the full picture and see the extent to which the forthcoming election colours the final figures and the final allocations. The Departments of Justice, Equality, and Law Reform, Education and Science and Health and Children have received substantial increases in the region of 10% while the Department of Defence has received less than half this amount.

Undoubtedly, the Minister for Finance is bowing to pressure from his backbenchers to spend generously in the big spending Departments which are election sensitive. Despite his protestations to the contrary, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, has already signalled in the Estimates his willingness to splurge in 2007, as his predecessor, Charlie McCreevy, did in 2002 to buy the forthcoming election.

When the crunch comes, as it always does in an election year, Fianna Fáil has an unerring ability to metamorphose Fianna Fáil's electoral interests into the national interest. I wait with bated breath for an election budget giveaway that will be packaged with protestations of prudency, the national interest and national responsibility.

Nothing can hide the fact that the Department of Defence is the Cinderella of the spending Departments. The increase in the 2007 Book of Estimates is a mere 4.6% compared to an average of more than 8% in all Departments. This increase does not compensate for the steady erosion of funding for the Defence Forces over the past ten years. A 4.6% increase will barely keep pace with inflation which has been approaching this mark over the past six months. Therefore, the Estimates for the Department of Defence represent no significant increase in year-on spending.

Moreover, while the Minister, Deputy O'Dea, indulges in self-congratulations, the reality remains that, over the past ten years, Defence spending has fallen by 50% from 1.3% of GNP to only 0.65% of GNP today. This is having a damaging effect on the morale of officers and ordinary members of the Defence Forces who believe that the Government does not attach sufficient importance to their needs. Contrast with the larger budgets supplied for defence spending among other European Governments.

Ireland's commitments to United Nations missions overseas have increased substantially in recent years. At present, our troops are deployed to every trouble spot around the globe. The Defence Force quota of 10% of the Permanent Defence Forces on United Nations duty and missions is stretched to its upper limit. At such a time, Defence spending should also be increased to meet these responsibilities and to ensure our soldiers have the best equipment, best training and knowledge to carry out their international duties.

We are likely to get another "squandermania" from the Government in the forthcoming budget. What has been spent hitherto has been spent badly. The quality of society has disimproved. Following on from what the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism said in regard to Lansdowne Road and Croke Park, the amount of money provided to those national stadia is welcome, but nothing has been given to improve the quality of life for the people in the areas. Croke Park is an 82,000 plus stadium and yet not a cent has been made available to provide a single parking place for those 82,000 people. There are no park and ride facilities or car parks. No attempt has been made to get public transport to take people to Croke Park. In other words, people have not been a consideration for the Government.

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