Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Once again I record disappointment primarily at the failure of the Minister to include a number of essential measures in this budget, the 11th presented by Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats with the Green Party now added into the mix.

This budget is undoubtedly a bitter disappointment to those who were promised by this Government that more families would be entitled to the medical card. In the programme for Government, the Government parties promised to double the income limit eligibility for parents of children under six and treble it for parents of children with a disability. They have reneged on those commitments. To try to cover this broken promise, the Minister for Health and Children is supposed to be reviewing eligibility for the medical card. Why is a review needed to implement the commitment made in the programme for Government? If such a review is needed, why was the commitment made in the first place? The programme for Government promises first to index income thresholds for medical cards to increases in the average industrial wage; second, to double income limit eligibility for parents of children under six; and third, to treble the limit for parents of children with intellectual disability under 18. None of those things have been done. In fact, the medical card threshold is now lower than the lowest rate of social welfare. That is an inexplicable situation. Why it will take until next autumn to make a determination in regard to this area baffles me and many people across this State.

The Minister for Finance and the Minister for Health and Children did not need a further study to cost these commitments. In October 2005, the Minister for Health and Children was able to tell me in answer to a parliamentary question that it would cost €223 million to extend the medical card to everyone under 18. As a first step towards universal, single-tier health care, that has been Sinn Féin's demand for several years. However, guess which party demanded that in its 2007 pre-budget submission? It was demanded by the "add on" party, the Green Party. It called for the introduction of medical cards for all under 18s, rolled out to children of six years and under first. The symbol of the Green Party is a tree but sadly I note its policies are blowing away like autumn leaves.

Sinn Féin warned that the budget would contain hidden cuts and charges and we did not have long to wait to see that. The Minister for Finance was hardly off his feet before the Minister for Health and Children was over in Government Buildings announcing a package that will further penalise health service users. The 10% increase in hospital charges is disgraceful. The change in the drugs payment scheme will mean that non-medical card holders will have to pay more than €90, an increase from €85 per month, for medicines before benefiting under the scheme. Once again low to middle income families have been let down and are bearing the brunt of the inequity in our health services.

There is nothing in the budget to help create greater equity in health care and it does nothing to address the health crisis. The cap on the number of people employed in the public service remains. That cap hits the health services badly, especially in front-line care. There is no special additional allocation to phase in the 3,000 extra hospital beds required. There is no special allocation to provide additional single rooms and isolation units in our hospitals to combat the spread of MRSA and other virulent hospital-based infection.

The Minister for Finance left tax breaks for developers of private for-profit hospitals in place and the shameful co-location scheme will go ahead, funded by taxpayers' money and reinforcing the two-tier system. The Government claims that it will provide 1,000 public beds through the co-location scheme but it cannot, or will not, tell us how many per hospital. We know this figure is fiction anyway because many of the private patients it hopes to transfer to the co-located hospitals will not be suitable for transfer or for initial admission to private hospitals because those facilities will not be able to provide the full range of care they require.

The biggest percentage increases in health spending are interestingly enough 146% for inquiries, legal fees and settlements and 42% to the State Claims Agency for payouts in cases of clinical negligence. This reflects the crisis in our health services and its cost in monetary terms, let alone the massive human cost.

As my colleague, the Sinn Féin finance spokesperson, Deputy Arthur Morgan, said yesterday, this is a minimalist budget. The Government is hoping that successful lowering of public expectations will allow it to present this budget in a positive light but I warrant that the public will not be fooled. It is plain for all to see that this budget bares little or no relation to the promises made by Fianna Fáil in advance of the election. What has been given with one hand has been taken away with the other. It will make little difference to the vast majority of people struggling with increased costs of living.

While cutting taxes Fianna Fáil promised to increase spending. Sinn Féin argued that it simply could not be done. We pointed out that there was every reason to believe that the slowdown in the property and construction sector would result in a significant drop in the tax take. We highlighted the fact that this concern had been raised in the tax strategy papers presented to the Minister for Finance in advance of budget 2007.

This Government has a bad record of managing the public finances. It has a bad record of planning for the future needs of the people in terms of the increased capacity in public services that are needed and the revenue required to meet those demands. It has abdicated its responsibility to manage the economy and has allowed it to develop in an unsustainable manner.

There are many reasons to be disappointed by this budget, and it is not only in the area of health care and child care needs. These include the increase in stealth charges; the failure to increase the qualifying adult social welfare rate to make it equal to 100% of the claimant's rate; the failure to increase the fuel allowance — all we have is a paltry increase of one week in the period for which fuel allowance is paid which is a shameful situation; the absence of a focus on retraining and up-skilling workers; the failure to introduce a cost of disability payment; and the failure to introduce a universal pre-school session of 3.5 hours per day, five days a week for all children in the year before they go to school.

There are many things in this budget that deserve to be criticised. What has been gained from the widening of the standard rate tax band, while welcome, will be lost again as stealth charges are increased. I have already alluded to the increased costs for health care access in terms of the drugs refund scheme and hospital accident and emergency attendance charges. Let us not forget that last night we saw the passing of a financial resolution that allowed for a 9.5% increase in motor tax for cars up to 2.5 litres and 11% for cars in excess of that. These are all stealth taxes hurting families struggling to make ends meet. It is shameful that these measures have been included.

Cash strapped local authorities will, inevitably, seek to increase service charges and fail to take estates in charge, leaving new residents with the additional burden of management charges. The Government seeks to give the impression that the budget will deliver on housing, but nothing could be further from the truth. We have no indication of the extent of the commitment in the 9,000 units promised as to what number will be direct build by local authorities and how much is dependent on Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000.

The universally paltry increases in children's allowance and the early child care supplement do not go far enough for struggling families. The only way to solve the child care crisis is to build an accessible and affordable model akin to what is offered in many other European states, starting with free pre-school provision. That is an essential step and I commend it to the Minister for Finance in advance of next year's budget in the hope that he will yet realise the importance of this measure.

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