James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

Even more than ever, the actions of the Government leave me outraged. By what distorted thinking can it be considered logical that its Leader deserves a pay increase 60 times greater than the amount given grudgingly to the elderly in the budget? The elderly are the very people who brought the country to a level undreamed of in their youth and who elected the Government that now insults them with a €14 increase if they are lucky to have a contributory pension or a miserly €12 otherwise. This is a drop in the ocean and pretty sick when one thinks of the increase of €700 to €800 per week that the Taoiseach is pocketing. Instead of providing for the anticipated increase of €20 per week for old age pensioners, which is hardly above the rate of inflation, the Minister for Finance had the nerve to throw a miserly €14 at pensioners who, by their hard work, created the Celtic tiger, while at the same time copper-fastening the €800 increase for his leader. What makes the Taoiseach worth six times the rise granted to elderly people? A rise of €14 is miserly and would hardly buy a drink for the Taoiseach but this is what pensioners are expected to take as their annual increase.

I tabled the following parliamentary question in the hope the Government would have some heart and reward elderly people. I asked the Minister for Finance, in light of the fact that one in five pensioners is at risk of poverty and given the undertaking in the programme for Government to increase the basic State pension to €300 at least by 2012, if he is prepared to ensure this provision is front-loaded and not drip-fed at the rate of €20 per year and if he will make a statement on the matter. Far from conceding or even hearing, the Minister has reneged on his promise to increase the pension rate by €20 a year until 2012. That is a shame on the Minister for Finance and a greater shame on the Taoiseach who has destroyed the moral integrity of the highest political position in the State, threatened the core of our democracy by his actions and yet considers himself worth 60 times the value to be paid to elderly citizens.

This Government has ignored the marginalised, the poor, the ill, the disabled, the elderly and their carers. It has done very little to lift older people out of the poverty trap and leave them comfortable in their retirement. The cost of disability payments is not included in this budget.

Of particular concern to me is our heritage which is an important aspect of environmental protection. Conservation of our heritage adds to our quality of life, culture and education. Heritage is strongly linked to tourism and is a cornerstone and legacy of the tourism industry with cultural and heritage sites having a crucial role to play in extending the tourism season. How does the Minister for Finance respond to the protection of our heritage? He gave little recognition to the important role it has played, and will continue to play, in shaping the country in which we live.

There is a need for an integrated approach and greater co-ordination at Government level and between Departments and local authorities for an improvement in awareness levels concerning heritage generally and a recognition of the important part it plays in our economic development. The small increase allocated to the Heritage Council is to be welcomed on the principle that every little helps but it is way below the margin to enable our built heritage to survive for generations to come. Once lost, rare architectural sites and buildings can never be replaced.

In this regard, I highlight the courthouse in Castlepollard, County Westmeath, the Fr. Matthew Hall in Athlone, the famed jealous wall site in Belvedere House, Mullingar, and the 17th century Foxhall monument in my parish of Legan, County Longford, which is not only unique in Ireland but in Europe. These are all under threat on the Minister's watch.

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government spoke glowingly in his budget speech of what he plans to do in regard to parks and wildlife with the large sums of money which the Minister for Finance has given him for that very purpose. Strangely, not one figure was mentioned. Our Green Party Minister certainly does not appear to have green fingers. If finance is needed, which it is, then the parks of this country will certainly not be blooming.

Where is the input of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to be seen in this budget? Shortly after entering office, he promised he would review the policy to protect our architectural heritage. In case it has slipped his notice, such protection requires funding and this has slipped through his fingers. A mere 14% increase in funding to the Heritage Council is not exactly anything to boast about.

The environment portfolio in general has suffered at the hands of a supposedly Green Minister. The budget lacks strong green initiatives. Raising car tax, copying Fine Gael's policy on VRT and the re-announcement of the over-hyped commission on taxation are not exactly what we would have expected from a Green Party Minister. While welcome, and certainly supported by Fine Gael as we were the first to propose such a policy, the VRT changes are long overdue and should have been introduced this time last year.

I hope the commission on taxation, when it gets over the continual re-launch process, will give lie to the old saying that actions speak louder than words and will produce some results. Replying to an Adjournment matter of mine last month, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government said there is huge potential in the area of renewable energy and that he wants to see the Government deliver on that potential. There are no prizes for guessing how it delivered. Funding for energy efficient initiatives was slashed by 50%. Six months into Government, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources have made no noticeable contribution to meeting our Kyoto targets and once again the taxpayer will be forced to carry the can to the tune of €10 million in carbon credits.

Measures, if one could call them that, to support our farmers are conspicuous by their absence from this budget. As we all know, farming is riddled with bureaucracy, which is driving an ever-increasing number of farmers off the land. Unlike what is taking place in other countries such as New Zealand, the budget does nothing to encourage young people into farming and fails to address the suspension of the farm improvement scheme. It shamefully fails to address the lack of pension cover for farm spouses and some older farmers. This budget shows no evidence of a commitment to the future of the agriculture sector. Rural Ireland is disproportionately affected by continuing job losses in manufacturing — 500 jobs were lost in Abbott in Galway and 32 jobs are likely to go in my county of Longford this week — and in agriculture because of unbalanced regional development.

Targets for decentralisation have not been met. It has certainly not gone ahead as promised and has been doomed to failure from the outset. Decentralisation has proved to be an empty promise and will go down in history as the most significant of all the broken promises of this Government.

Economic development in rural Ireland is being stifled. It is said we are heading for a vibrant knowledge-based economy and yet the budget did nothing to advance this aspiration. There is no investment in the next generation of broadband. Lasting damage will be done to our competitiveness unless there is large-scale investment in the next generation of networks but that aside, every household in the country deserves a broadband connection.

Indicative of the hidden nature of this Government was the extraordinary direction by the Minister for Education and Science to remove my colleague, Deputy Brian Hayes, the Fine Gael spokesperson on education, from her education budget briefing this morning. Even she must be able to calculate that the cat is already out of the bag and the meagre provision for education has been seen by all.

I listened to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and I am sick and tired of hearing this Government downplay the drugs problem. We can no longer ignore the extent of this problem and the Government must take strong action to tackle this lethal epidemic which has beset this nation.

See this speech in context