Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

It seems that the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, still has doubts about them and took his own advice from many years ago by leaving them out.

I understand that the prison system, which comes under the remit of the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, is seriously dysfunctional. I also understand that the design capacity vis-À-vis bed capacity is completely out of proportion. Spike Island, Shanganagh and the Curragh were closed. There is one sniffer dog for the entire country and cocaine is the new recreational drug for people throughout the country. There are over 250 prisoners in Cork Prison, which was designed to cater for 150. I understand that there are 300 prisoners on early release who did not return when they should have done and many of them are running loose. That is an appalling situation. Also appalling are the number of attacks on elderly people, the most recent of which was perpetrated against a priest in County Kerry.

The Minister for Finance stated that the concerns of the individual have been placed at the centre of the budget. I hope I will not be obliged to raise again the incompetency of the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Tim O'Malley, in commenting on mental health. As has been pointed out by spokesmen of the Fine Gael and Labour parties, the proportion of the health budget allocated to mental health has declined under this Government. There is no fully equipped, multi-disciplinary unit in the entire country, 20 years after one was first recommended.

It has been said that the budget places the individual at the centre of its concerns. If the Minister of State, Deputy Tim O'Malley, feels that he can act to reduce waiting lists only on the basis of representations, let him speak to the parents of Jordan Kelly and understand their frustration. Let them be a guide to the many others who suffer the same frustration, telling him face to face how all they got from the Government were boxes of pills and sheets of paper detailing how one should rear one's child. That is the situation in 2006 in the area for which Deputy Tim O'Malley is responsible, and he should be ashamed. If he wishes to make any reparation for his half-hearted apology, he should visit those parents and understand what they must deal with.

The budget has not dealt with the problems of the homeless, and the Simon Community said in a press statement that 40,000 persons on the social housing list would receive very little support from the Government. Some 5,000 families are currently homeless, 1,361 of them in this city. I sometimes have occasion to walk along streets in the vicinity of Leinster House, and those huddled in doorways on a bad night in 2006 are an indictment of policy on homeless people in this country at a time when we can spend €5 billion on the day of the budget.

I also very much regret that the budget has ignored something I view as a great challenge and opportunity for Ireland today, namely, immigration. We have special responsibility in this matter, having exported our people not by the planeload or boatload but by the generation. Now it is our turn to do our bit and live up to our responsibility to welcome the stranger. It is not merely a matter of altruism, since the harsh reality is that we now need immigrants, those men and women who make such a dynamic contribution to our economy, and we will need more workers from overseas to sustain economic growth and prosperity in the years ahead. Growth rates for the next ten years are forecast to average 4%, meaning there will be a requirement for at least 300,000 immigrants to work in the country's service industries.

The budget proves that the Government is not planning for that challenge or opportunity. Consequently, Ireland has already admitted hundreds of thousands of new residents without putting in place the services they and everyone else need to make our daily lives function. The Government has effectively already added a new county to Ireland, the equivalent of the entire population of County Kilkenny. That was completely unmanaged and unplanned. True to form, on the benches opposite there is no one in charge. For that reason, we now have the equivalent of 27 counties vying for public services already hopelessly incapable of meeting the needs of 26.

The health service is already in crisis, and schools are unable to offer children a place. It is our children, Irish and immigrant, who are paying such a high price for failures here. There is a school in Tallaght with 200 children from overseas. As Deputy Rabbitte has pointed out, many of them do not have English as a mother tongue. Those children have been granted only two additional teachers to help them with their English.

I understand basic numeracy, and according to the Department of Education and Science, if one has 14 non-national children in a school, one is allocated a language support teacher. If one has 28 non-national children, one gets two such teachers. However, if one has anything over that number, one still receives only two language support teachers. Therefore, in a school in Tallaght with 200 children from overseas, the Department of Education and Science, whose job it is to provide for education, allows only two language support teachers. As a consequence, teachers standing in front of those classes are unable to do their job, and the children are unable to reach their potential. Such archaic, inflexible and restrictive conditions imposed by the Department of Education and Science should be scrapped forthwith. If the conditions are not flexible or functional, none of the children can learn properly.

Regarding immigration, we must create a system of public services that are fair both to Irish people and to those coming to work and live here. We must ensure that living standards are protected, that our streets and roads are kept safe, and that our country remains wealthy and strong for generations to come. It must be fair to the Irish and fair to the immigrant. This budget does not achieve that, since it signally fails to recognise the reality. In that alone, it is a singular failure. I recommend to the Taoiseach that when he appoints his new Minister of State, he give that person responsibility for immigrant affairs attached to his own Department but acting cross-departmentally so that the many underlying problems can be addressed in a comprehensive and effective manner.

That is important, as we should learn from the mistakes of other countries. We are currently attempting to deal with a situation in 15 or 20 years with which the United States contended for 200. The Netherlands, once liberal, have now become introverted, and France has serious assimilation problems. Ireland can now learn and provide the world with an example, based on our Christian and Celtic heritage, of how assimilation and real social integration can take place.

At the end of the next decade, Ireland will celebrate the centenary of the 1916 Rising. Those ten years will see further great change in our country. They will also herald enormous change globally: the inexorable rise of China and India; the emergence of Russia as an energy superpower; the continuation of the problem of Israel-Palestine; and the outcome of struggles in Iran, Iraq and the Middle East generally. There will have been two further presidential elections in the United States, with changes of direction and policy determined by the will of the American people. We will have dealt with the consequences of Europe's decision on the EU constitution and on whether Turkey should join. The African population will have increased by 50%, and 40 million English-speaking Indian graduates will have emerged into the marketplace. People with a PhD or a master's degree can now be hired for relatively little in Irish terms.

The Government has not planned for any of those challenges, and the budget has attempted to address only the Government's failures to care for its people, and only for now. It demonstrates yet again an inability to plan properly, target strategically, and implement successfully. We introduced individualisation and did not plan for its impact on child care. We failed to plan for the consequences of immigration, and when introducing tax systems to provide for nursing homes, no plan was put in place for a parallel system of high-dependency care that might be monitored with a degree of integrity regarding the level of decency, comfort and attention offered to the elderly.

This budget demonstrates an inability to plan effectively, target strategically and implement successfully. It does not correspond to my vision of an Ireland where the Government is accountable and there is an equal and sustainable society for all.

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