Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

No, but Deputy Burton discussed the banks for a long time. The only bank rescued was rescued by the parties opposite. Unfortunately, no shareholding was taken to benefit taxpayers after the bank's quick recovery.

As we were required to do, the Government examined public spending a few days ago. Regarding the €440 million, we set out to spend €61 billion this year governing the country and will still spend an amount of that order. In terms of national income, the country has grown from €130 billion in 2002 to €160 billion today. Many references to waste have been made. In 2002, spending on pensions amounted to €3.5 billion per year whereas the current figure is €6 billion. Is this waste? Pensioners are in receipt of an additional €2.5 billion and €800 million extra has been allocated in respect of child benefit payments to support families.

I want to deal with health issues specifically. By any standards, the health budget is enormous and spending in Ireland has grown at 4% or 5% ahead of inflation more than in any other OECD country. We spend 9% of our national income, which is more relevant than GDP in Ireland's case, on health. This is the average figure throughout the EU and the OECD. We are involved in a major programme of health service transformation.

The decisions made recently will not affect, for example, the 8,700 people with intellectual disabilities in residential care, the 4,600 people in receipt of respite services or the 24,000 people in receipt of day services. None of those things is affected by the decisions that were made the other day.

In regard to the decisions on health I want to spend some time talking about the fair deal scheme. Every working day for the past 18 months, officials in my Department and in the Office of the Attorney General have been working on this legislation. We have also availed of expertise from outside the Office of the Attorney General in regard to the legislation. The issues that arise are not constitutional but they are complex. We are dealing with people at a very sensitive time in their lives. We are dealing with money, assets and income. We often deal with people who have diminished mental capacity. We must, therefore, make sure that the legislation protects those vulnerable people legally and that the legislation we promote through this House stands up legally and protects those people. I am confident that when the Dáil resumes after the summer recess we will be able to have that legislation passed with a view to having the fair deal scheme in place from the start of next year. Of the €110 million that was assigned for the fair deal scheme, we have taken €25 million, €13 million of which is for contract beds and €12 million of which is for more subventions. It would not be responsible of me to put all that €85 million into services that we would not be able to sustain next year because we need the money for the fair deal scheme.

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