Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I regard last week's budget as one of the most unbalanced in the 30 years I have been in this House. Like other Deputies, I realise that we have a huge economic problem on our hands and that if we were to convince the Irish people that they would have to face pain we would need to introduce a budget which balanced pain with the ability to pay. That did not happen, however. The budget struck the wrong balance because it was flawed from the outset. Last week was the first time in many years that every Government Member, including Deputy Gogarty and his Google, stood up to applaud a Budget Statement. As far as Government backbenchers were concerned, there was nothing wrong with the budget. They would not have accepted it if they thought otherwise.

This gives rise to a fundamental question. The elderly people who protested outside the gates today had to ask themselves whether the Government genuinely knows what a medical card means to ordinary people. After what they have heard in the past week, they would have to say the Government does not understand the importance of what I regard as a passport for ensuring the elderly have access to the medical services they need. I do not have time at present to develop this argument but I will get a further opportunity to do so tonight.

I have been an observer of the Government for many years. I was a Deputy in 2001, when the decision was made, correctly in my opinion, to give a medical card to everybody over the age of 70. The problem with the decision was, however, that a general election was held in 2002. I was here on the day in 2004 when the former Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, stood up to announce out of the blue the decentralisation of 10,000 civil servants. That programme was to be in place by 2007. We decentralised the Department of Defence to Renmore and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to Castlebar during the worst of times 20 years ago. It is a good scheme but the Government has managed to give decentralisation a bad name forever. It also gives part of the health scheme a bad name every time a Government Deputy stands up. All Deputy Gogarty could do was come in with a letter he sent this evening to the Taoiseach in faraway China. I am sure the Taoiseach will be delighted to get a letter from him, given that Deputy Gogarty saw nothing wrong on budget day. It only changed when the decent people of Ireland, many of whom spent a lifetime working in the worst of conditions, had to take to the streets. That is why the letter was sent to the Taoiseach in China, not that he will spend too much time reading it.

I could see straight away that the 1% levy would run into horrible trouble. Why would one ask people on the minimum wage, living hand to mouth, for even the smallest subscription to the Exchequer? It made no sense at all and would have cost more to collect than it was worth, but nobody around the ministerial tables knew that.

That was nothing compared to what was coming down the line. Through the years, we have believed that education is our touchstone. We related any economic success we had over the years to what we have done in education. Primary education is the foundation stone and all Governments have done their best with the resources available to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio. It has not come down nearly enough. It is hard to believe that any Government would be so insensitive as to increase the ratio, thereby ensuring we will lose several hundred teachers. There are two three-teacher schools in my constituency at Fohenagh and Clontuskert. There are 48 pupils in each school and those schools will each lose a teacher next year. Instead of a very good pupil-teacher ratio, there will be a very poor one. If one of the two teachers gets sick, under the details of the budget it may be that one teacher will have to teach 48 pupils alone for a week. That is the poor thought put into the budget.

Particular treatment was given to the farmers of Ireland. In 25 years I never saw this country without an installation aid grant to get young people into farming. I negotiated it in Brussels in 1983 with the then Minister for Agriculture, Deputy Austin Deasy. We train carpenters and plasterers through FÁS and it is money well spent. Why would we not train and pay a young person to go into agriculture? If they are not trained and highly skilled, we are going nowhere. In one fell swoop, the Government took €15,000 from the pockets of those small farmers. In a double blow, it ensured the EU retirement pension scheme was scrapped as well.

The Government went further in putting its hand into the pocket of every Irish farmer. When the Government brought the hand out it had an average of €4,000 in it. This was done on the basis of the €80 suckler cow welfare scheme, introduced before the last election by the then Minister for Agriculture and Food. Many in the House know that farming is my background and I am involved in the scheme. The ink was not dry on the contract between the Department and me before I was told, after the election three months later, that the sum was not €80 but €40 and, worse, I would have to wait an extra year. That is not a way to do business. One cannot engage in forward planning.

Since we joined the EU in 1973, we have always had headage payments for the worst land areas in the country. The Acting Chairman, Deputy Kirk, was involved in this. We always ensured there was an area-based payment or headage payment for the poor land areas. What did the Government do? Down with the hand again, taking another €1,000 from the top rate. The Government talks about balance in government. I do not have time to go into other things the Government has done. Sectoral interests will be outside the gate because the Government has hit them too hard and is showing that it is not in charge of the ship. I assure Deputies that it will be a winter of discontent.

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