Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

Now all these promises have gone by the wayside and instead of a €2 billion surplus, we are now heading towards a €5 billion debt, just to meet increased wages, social welfare etc.

I welcome the increase in social welfare and, hopefully, I will get an opportunity to speak on that matter in another debate. It is vital that the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, not only speaks of rectifying mismanagement at every level within the Government, such as the HSE, but that he delivers on his proposals.

Over the past ten years we have had massive increases in public service employment, yet we have less frontline staff in many areas. I was advised only this week that the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government cannot deal with applications for water and sewerage schemes because it has not got sufficient quality personnel to examine the projects. If any farmer gave the same excuse with regard to pollution control, he would soon be out of business. In my constituency dental services are being removed from the town of Cootehill because in spite of all the staff within the HSE at management and other levels there are insufficient dentists.

The HSE received agreement from Government to train speech therapists and physiotherapists, but now that these people are qualified, they cannot get jobs from the HSE because they have not got work experience. Many patients are, as a result, left without a service. This is just another example of lack of management or joined-up thinking.

The budget had very little to offer to the farming community. At the time the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Mary Coughlan, announced the special grants scheme for waste management to help farmers deal with the nitrates directive, I received assurance from her — its on the record of the Dáil — that the Government had no problem with funding for that scheme. However, the Minister for Finance made a big deal of the fact that he has increased her budget by €35 million towards that end, with no guarantee for full payment. No funding has been provided for the restoration of the farm development scheme, which was supposed to last seven years, but was suspended after four months. Many young farmers in the process of taking over holdings were badly caught by this and may no longer be able to commit themselves to full-time farming.

I acknowledge, as Deputy Johnny Brady mentioned, there have been some improvements in the tax regime as far as partnerships are concerned. The situation was ridiculous. If a partnership broke up as a result of sickness, death or a fall-out of some sort, the tax implications were appalling.

Mushroom production was an extremely important family farm project ten years ago, with almost 600 people involved. However, there are now only approximately 80 units in full-time production. It is clear from answers I received from the Minister regarding other farm production that she has no idea how many are actually involved. I will return to this issue on another occasion. Young farmers need all the support they can get to stay in business, but it is clear the Government has lost interest. It is strange that at a time when we are threatened with foot and mouth disease, or any such problem, agriculture becomes extremely important, but at budget time it is another story.

I want to address the important issue of our road network. I am delighted we have a reasonable road from Dublin to Monaghan, with the third bypass finished recently. I am concerned, however, by the Minister's statement in the budget with regard to his commitment to the Dublin area and projects currently under construction, as he makes no commitment to the Border region whatsoever. The road from Monaghan town to Emyvale and on to the Border is extremely poor and is now a bottleneck——

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