Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

We have all heard the reports that social welfare payments would be frozen, that child benefit would be taxed, that the Department of Social and Family Affairs had the biggest expenditure and is a so-called drain on the public purse strings. This system is meant to aid those in need, whether they have lost their jobs, are part of a family on low income, are elderly, disabled or ill. Social welfare is not charity for the State to dole out at will. It is a right and an entitlement, and the money within the system is put there ever year by taxpayers, conscious of the fact that they might one day need to access it. If the budget of the Department of Social and Family Affairs is rising, the Government should look at why so many are accessing the system, and set about finding solutions to get people off social welfare and back into employment. The Government's responsibility is not about making savings that will harm the most vulnerable.

This budget did not take that sensible approach. Instead, it chose to make savings by cutting payments like the early child care supplement. This supplement was introduced as a poor attempt at dealing with the lack of a functioning State child care policy. There was no attempt to make this cut equitable. In a recent parliamentary question, I asked how much money would be saved were this payment to be made only to families earning less than €100,000 per annum. The response, based on revenue estimates, was that this process of payment would save the state €71 million. Did the Government undertake any kind of study regarding this proposal before it made this decision, or did it just arbitrarily decide to slash a percentage of the payment to everyone?

The individual payment increases will do nothing to make next year any easier for those struggling with poverty. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul reported a 50% increase in requests for assistance in the first half of 2008. Threshold has highlighted the significant increase in illegal evictions caused by landlords running into mortgage arrears, and a dramatic increase in home repossession. Merchant's Quay Ireland reported an 11% increase in the number of meals it provided to homeless people this year. Failure to protect our most vulnerable in this budget will do nothing to fix our economy next year. It will merely create more poverty traps, more misery and more social problems in the years to come.

When cuts were mentioned in advance of this budget, the Government stated clearly that they would not affect front line services in health and education. This budget is an attack on our health services. The paltry increase in funding falls far short of clearly identified needs and will undoubtedly lead to deterioration in services. Health cuts were introduced before last year's budget and have accelerated since. Patients were being turned away this morning from Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda because of overcrowding. Deputy Ó Caoláin has learned that a promised and much needed ambulance will not now be provided to Monaghan General Hospital. The orthopaedic unit at Our Lady's Hospital in Navan looks set to close for four months. The Minister for Health and Children and Professor Brendan Drumm promised that cuts would not affect patient care, but we have not seen any proof. This budget will speed up the process. Patients will suffer and patients will die as a result of this budget.

Far from representing savings, these cuts are shortsighted and will cost more in the long run. The cuts in home help hours and other services in the community for older people will force more of them from their own homes, and into expensive nursing home care, much of which will be subsidised by the State at a huge cost.

The closure of hospital services across the State for weeks on end to stay within HSE budgets is another false economy as hospital staff continue to be paid and facilities maintained while these facilities are closed to patients. I refer to an example from my area. Last Christmas, Navan orthopaedic unit was closed for several months, but the nurses, consultants and other staff were still paid and the only saving was in the replacement body parts, hips and knees, which were to be used. The people who needed those replacements in December when the closure occurred still needed them in January, February, March and April, the only difference being that they were suffering more and the queues were growing longer. This is very poor efficiency and shame on the Government for allowing that to happen and for continuing with that disgraceful policy.

With rising unemployment leading to an increase in the numbers of people eligible for the medical card, it is essential that services for medical card patients are maintained. GPs must be discouraged from setting quotas for medical card holders. It is wrong that entitled families are refused by doctor after doctor. The Government has failed to fulfil its own commitments to index the income thresholds for medical cards to increases in the average industrial wage and double the income limit eligibility of parents of children under six years of age and treble them for parents of children under 18 years of age with an intellectual disability. When the over 70s non-means tested medical card was introduced, Sinn Féin asked why the same principle was not applied to people under 18, people with a range of medical conditions and, indeed, all citizens. This scheme has been withdrawn and that demonstrates the lack of consistency and the inequity at the heart of Government health policy. That will hurt many elderly people who do not meet whatever means criteria are set out for the medial card. It is most unfortunate the Green Party could not exercise more influence to ensure the scheme was continued.

Given the current shortfall in public finances, it is crucial that the Government ends the massive waste of resources and inequality caused by the two tier public-private health system.

The cost to the Exchequer of tax foregone in capital allowances to the developers of private hospitals rose from €1.9 million in 2004 to €10.6 million in 2006, with figures for 2007 and 2008 not yet available. The cost in 2006 alone would fund over 6,000 extra full medical cards for a year. The private hospital co-location scheme is another massive subsidy to the private health business. The cost of tax breaks for these developments is not yet known and it cannot be quantified. The land to which they have been given access is a huge asset which will be lost to the public health system. Ultimately, the only guarantee of equal access and real efficiency in our health services will be fundamental reform and the establishment of a universal public health system, with access based on need alone, free at the point of delivery and funded from general, fair and progressive taxation.

Sinn Féin wants to see the immediate establishment of a health funding commission to report within a year on the costs of the transition to a new single tier public health system with universal provision, taking into account all spending on health services under the current systems, including State funding and spending on private health insurance.

Education is another area which the Government promised to protect from cuts in this budget. Given that the system is barely existing on its current funds, a marginal increase is akin to cuts in real terms. We accept that this is a new economic environment, but the education sector must be considered as part of an overall strategy to reverse the current economic outlook and to ensure the long-term stability of the Irish economy. We cannot build a knowledge economy if we do not invest in knowledge from pre-school up through the system.

Perhaps the most blatant neglect and disregard shown to our young people by the Government is in the area of school buildings. The Minister has effectively deceived the Dáil on this issue. Investment in primary school building was not increased but rather it was reduced by 5%. Public-private partnership costs have gone up by 30%. The recently introduced school building programme is completely inadequate. Only 25 schools are to benefit, which means hundreds of schools will be disappointed. One third of our primary schools have applied for a new school or need building works on their existing school. Glenswilly national school in Donegal has been innovative in its response. It has renamed itself, Seeking an Extension since 1992. Unfortunately, the Government showed no such innovation. I called to St. Joseph's school in Mell in Drogheda this morning where 211 pupils are crammed into all sorts of closeted conditions. Two cloakrooms have been converted into classrooms. Other pupils wishing to use the toilet are forced to go through those tiny cloakrooms.

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