Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I say "fronted" deliberately because these are Fianna Fáil policies and every Deputy and Senator of that party bears collective responsibility for them. They cannot hide behind the Minister, Deputy Harney, nor can she in turn hide behind the HSE.

I have urged the new Taoiseach to change direction and I again urge him to do so even though he wishes to retain Deputy Harney in the health portfolio. I strongly contend that no party calling itself republican can continue with current health policies which are deepening the divide in our two-tier system.

I have a proposal for the Taoiseach. Sinn Féin would like to be part of an all-party agreement on health. The foundation of that agreement would be the ending of health care apartheid and the creation of a single-tier service with equal access for all based on need alone. Centralisation and privatisation should end, with services supported and developed at our local hospitals. We need a coalition for equality and excellence in our health services, a coalition that will build up our public health system and harness the commitment and dedication of health services workers. It would be an alliance of those workers along with communities and patients' groups and everyone in our society concerned with building better and fairer health services.

The new Taoiseach comes into office from the Department of Finance at a time of economic downturn. Unemployment rates continue to increase. Nothing has been done to protect or retrain workers in vulnerable sectors. Tax revenue is well below projections, with €927 million or 6.5% less being collected in tax revenue during the first four months of 2008 than in 2007.

Under the now Taoiseach, Deputy Brian Cowen, and his predecessors the Exchequer became ever more dependent on revenue from construction and domestic consumption. We are paying the price for this now as revenue from these sectors declines.

The Government has allowed the economy to become unsustainable as economic growth over recent years was driven by domestic consumption rather than exports or trade. Nothing was done to tackle this. This dependence in economic growth on domestic consumption left the economy particularly vulnerable, and both then Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, and Deputy Micheál Martin at the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment, failed to take any action in response to the downturn in the economy.

I take this opportunity to extend my congratulations to the new Tánaiste, who also takes on the portfolio of Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. I wish Deputy Mary Coughlan success in her new responsibilities.

The hands-off approach to economic management adopted to date should be brought to an end by the new Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan. There should be action to tackle those factors undermining competitiveness, such as deficiencies in transport and communications infrastructure. There must be intervention to provide training and upskilling to vulnerable workers and those recently made unemployed. Tax and PRSI cuts proposed in the programme for Government are not viable and should not go ahead, and revenue should be retained to provide better public services.

The new Taoiseach faces a major challenge in attempting to negotiate a successor to the Towards 2016 agreement. He should ignore the hypocritical calls for pay restraint from top management in the private sector, which has awarded itself massive pay rises while ordinary workers struggle to keep up with the cost of living. Any new agreement must also guarantee the right to union recognition.

We urge the immediate introduction of legislation on agency workers based on the principle of equal rights. This issue is damaging our economy by allowing a race to the bottom in terms of workers' rights and wages. Agency workers are being used to casualise the labour market and the claims of employers' bodies that agency workers allow us to be more competitive are blown out of the water by the fact that every country ranking more competitive than us in Europe already has protective legislation for agency workers. The trade union movement has called this the potential breaking point of the talks on social partnership.

The new Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Mary Hanafin, as well as raising welfare payments to a decent standard, should review the entire system of social welfare to make it customer accessible and more efficient, as well as geared towards removing barriers to work. Specifically she should step back from the plan to push single parents into the workplace while there are still no adequate child care facilities available to them. Two weeks paid paternity leave should be introduced and maternity benefit payment should be raised to an acceptable living standard.

That same Minister, in her previous portfolio, has in no small way contributed to the range of major problems now plain to see in the education system. It gives me no pleasure to say that. The problems include the state of existing school buildings and the shortage of accommodation, her attack on early immersion Irish language education, the underfunding of primary schools, insufficient third level grants and school secretaries being paid disparate rates of pay and in some cases under the minimum wage. Of course, we have the scandal of families of children with autism and other special needs being denied the services they so desperately require. The new Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, must make a fresh start.

The new Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern, also faces significant challenges. Successive Fianna Fáil-led Governments refused to properly resource the six-year national drugs strategy which concludes this year. The strategy has been starved of funding. In the meantime, the heroin epidemic has spread beyond the capital and cocaine is in use in every town on the island. Drug-related and gangland crime have flourished as a direct result of Government inaction. Under budget 2008, funding allocated to the drugs initiative-young people's facilities and services fund, which includes the national drugs strategy, is to be €64 million. Contrast this figure with that allocated to the horse and greyhound racing fund, €76.6 million, and it is clear where the Government's priorities lie.

The HSE has already made cuts in the area of drug treatment and has reneged on promises to deliver. The fight against drugs must receive the priority and resources required. The full cost of the drugs crisis ranges from overdoses and road deaths, hospital stays, addiction treatments, social welfare payments and absenteeism from work to gangland murder and intimidation. Funding to front-line services must be sufficient and secure. Pilot projects should be mainstreamed without delay.

Having kept the good wine until last, I wish to avail of this opportunity to extend my personal congratulations and good wishes to the new Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Smith. The Minister must take a strong line in respect of the WTO negotiations and ensure that the EU Commission does not sacrifice the interests of Irish agriculture in pursuit of a deal favourable to larger member states. The current proposals associated with Commissioner for Trade, Peter Mandelson — in reality they are the Commission's proposals — represent a betrayal of the commitment given to farmers in 2003 when they agreed to the reform of CAP and, in particular, to the introduction of the decoupled single farm payment. The Minister must ensure that this commitment is not reneged upon and that farmers are not forced down a road which could lead to the decimation of the sector, with all the implications this would have for food production, employment and the fabric of rural Ireland.

Sinn Féin represents a different voice in this House. We will not be part of any cosy consensus. We have presented our analysis and our position consistently throughout our years of representation in this Chamber. We will not, therefore, be supporting this Cabinet. We will continue to offer constructive opposition, representing as honestly and as comprehensively as possible all who have elected us and also the many people who have been abandoned by those in whom they previously placed their trust.

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