Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

They tried often.

I am glad of the opportunity to say a few words on the budget. For some reason last year was one year I failed to speak on this subject.

This budget needs close scrutiny. It is a post-election budget, partly anaesthetic and partly healing. On looking at it closely one will find the reasons it comes within those two categories — the shock of the public in the aftermath of the general election and the failure to deliver on a series of promises. There comes a time then when the public must be assuaged, confronted, rebutted. That is the purpose of this budget. This is the stumbling block that explains why the Government cannot deliver on its pre-election promises. That is a sad truth. I hope all Members and parties in this House, including the present multi-party Government made up of Independents, the Progressive Democrats, the Greens and good old reliable Fianna Fáil, snuggling up in the comfort of each other's company as we come up to the season of Christmas, think carefully about the promises they failed to keep and the people affected by them.

The budget proposes to increase expenditure on housing. It is no harm to welcome that, but it comes very late. In recent years there has been a process of downgrading the local authority housing programme and introducing, and replacing it with the activities of voluntary housing agencies. This has resulted in the voluntary agencies having the pick of the crop and they do not take on the difficult situations where there are serious social problems. The local authorities must provide housing and have been doing so on a diminishing scale for several years.

Additional funding is proposed for health and the delivery of the health services. When the health boards were abolished a few years ago it was regarded by the then Minister, Deputy Martin, as a good idea because they were wasting money hand over fist. The only difference between then and now is that then there was accountability. One could raise the issue in the House and get an answer instantly. One cannot do that anymore. One could raise it at any level anywhere and there was always accountability. There was transparency and people were called to account on a regular basis. That does not happen to the same extent any more despite the employment of an extra 33,000 people in the services within the past five years.

The way the health services have gone is an appalling indictment of the failure of Government to confront the issues in the health area, to address the issues fundamentally at ground level and to ensure that provision is made so that services can be delivered to the public. The patients and the public are the most important people in this equation and they are the last to be considered. They are the ones who get second-class treatment on a regular basis. I do not propose to go through the difficulties that have arisen over the past two or three years at various locations throughout the country where serious deficiencies have been shown in the way services are delivered to the general public.

In case any Member on the Government benches might get offended at this, I emphasise that this is not a criticism of anybody delivering the services. It is a criticism of the way the services are delivered and the rotation in which they are delivered. Unless something is done about it as a matter of urgency, there will be serious consequences. The Government will spend ever increasing sums in that area with the same result we have had to date. It is appalling.

The other area we hear much about nowadays is the environment. The Green Party started off in the life of the present Government by cycling in front of the squad cars. We must make allowances for the exuberance that follows early appointment but I am glad this practice has been discontinued and no other members of the Cabinet or junior Ministers pursue that practice. Dispose of the bicycle clips and let us get down to brass tacks. Let us look briefly at the environment. The problem with pollution of ground-water is one of the areas on which we get many lectures by Government. We are told about industry, agriculture and everything that damages the ground-water and the environment. We never get a lecture from anybody on the local authorities — which are funded directly, albeit inadequately, by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government — who are responsible for ensuring that raw sewage does not pour into lakes and rivers, that there are sewerage schemes capable of fulfilling their purpose and water treatment schemes put in place sufficiently in advance of population requirements so that the pollution of ground-water does not continue. Let this Government start by taking a leaf from its own book. Let the Government do something positive and prevent the pollution of the ground-water supply.

For many years since first coming into this House I have questioned the quality and adequacy of the domestic drinking water supply. I have always been assured that it is more than adequate, there is adequate storage, there is plenty and that all in the garden is rosy. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Government has sat idle while all this pollution occurred and failed to address the issues. It is failing to do so in the current year and will fail again. I bring to the attention of the parties this issue that requires attention.

On the economy in general, for several years some of us have pointed to our lack of competitiveness. The Government chose to ignore us. Those on the Government benches say we are unpatriotic to make such statements. We are becoming ever less competitive and are being replaced in the world markets by others who are more competitive. If the Government thinks we will survive on world markets on that basis, by all means let it continue but if it thinks a remedy is needed, it should come forward with it and do something about it now rather than wait until the economy falls apart. Tomorrow it may be too late.

In the world marketplace, that hard-headed business world, nobody cares and it is all a matter of tough negotiation. One either delivers or one fails. I ask the Government not to continue to allow jobs to be relocated to other more competitive economies. I need not enumerate the instances where it has happened in the past. The Members on the Government benches from Donegal and Dublin will know full well what I am talking about and it happens even as we speak.

My colleagues are more than anxious to contribute and I can see the Acting Chairman, Deputy Brady, becoming restive. I wish him a happy Christmas in case I do not have an opportunity to see him again before then.

See this speech in context