Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

How can anyone argue that a cap of two support teachers is justified, irrespective of the size of the school or the number of non-national children? The decision to abandon the effort to improve the pupil-teacher ratio and to take a significant step backwards has properly provoked strenuous protests from teacher leaders who have tended heretofore to be supportive of the Government. Far from protecting the little people, this decision literally makes the children pay for the recession.

I feel especially angry at the savage increase in the third level registration fee from €900 to €1,500, which will kill off the ambition to go to third level in many working-class homes that are not recipients of grants. It appears that the campaign to reintroduce fees is determined to succeed.

In this regard it is instructive to look again at the Minister's words on budget day. He made it perfectly plain that the Government is rethinking such universal provision as we now enjoy when he stated: "Universal entitlement irrespective of means does not target those in greatest need..... I am proposing in the budget this year to initiate action in this direction in some areas."

It is clear that the Government is not satisfied to abolish automatic entitlement to the medical card. It seems to be the intention, for example, that once again third level education will become mainly the preserve of those who can afford it. The Minister made clear that he intends to tackle universal provision and this was the point picked up by Deputy Behan. There are very few areas in our society where there is universal provision and it seems that third level tuition fees will be the next call.

The Minister went out of his way to put on the record that he "expects that the Commission on Taxation will examine options relating to the tax treatment of universal child benefit payments". There is a great deal in this budget that requires to be teased out, that, because of the understandable protests about the Government removing the medical card from pensioners, has been hidden away. He stated very plainly, and I quote him again, that he "expects that the Commission on Taxation will examine options relating to the tax treatment of universal child benefit payments".

With respect to the medical card, if it is true that there are 20,000 millionaires aged over 70, an extraordinary number given that there are supposed to be 33,000 millionaires in the population as a whole, it will cost almost as much to administer the agreement the Government has put in place, or believes it has put in place, than it would to permit the universal provision of access to primary care on the basis of need rather than on the basis that people can afford it.

One has to keep an eye on the monitor. The first proposal was that we would have a four-tier system, the first category being old age pensioners with the medical card, the second those with the GP-only card, the third those with the €400 and the fourth those with no entitlement. Can anybody imagine the means test nightmare that system will involve for a Health Service Executive that cannot administer what it is charged with as it stands? After the climb-down what the Government proposes is a means test that will cost as much as the €16 million odd it will save.

How did we get into this mess? We know that the medical card fiasco is another Mícheál Martin special. This is the Minister who negotiated the contract with GPs that is now deemed unaffordable, the same Minister who could have saved €111 million on the nursing home over-payments scandal if only he had read his brief, the same Minister who put hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money into the health service without any reforms or value for money considerations. In which other democratic country would this man still be a Minister?

I sought to raise the following matter with the Tánaiste this morning but she coyly stepped away from it. I understand from some doctors that the agreement the former Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Micheál Martin, signed with general practitioners in respect of medical cards for those aged over 70 years includes a term which disallows the Government from changing the contract without the express permission of the Irish Medical Organisation. I have never heard of a government ceding its sovereign right to act as it sees fit. Despite signing this term in the contract, the Minister for Foreign Affairs is still swanning around the place making eyes at higher office.

No one who knows anything about Irish history and politics will have been surprised that the doctors triumphed at the expense of the taxpayer because they have done so on previous occasions. It was, however, the duty of the then Minister, Deputy Martin, to protect the taxpayer. Instead, on the basis that money was no object, he approved an ignominious gain for short-term electoral advantage.

I recall evidence on the decision on medical cards for those aged over 70 years given before the Committee of Public Accounts by the Secretary General of the Department of Health and Children. The Department, which was not consulted until 36 hours before the decision was announced, underestimated the numbers involved in the scheme and its cost and did not have an opportunity to consult general practitioners. Whereas the then Minister for Finance, Mr. McCreevy, estimated the scheme would cost approximately €19 million, it cost €59 million and the cost has since escalated. This was typical of the kind of decision making in the Governments led by former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern. If votes could be garnered, money was not a problem.

We are told protracted discussions took place at Cabinet level before the Government decided to impose a 1% levy on the working poor, worsen the pupil-teacher ratio and snatch the medical card from the pensioners. The two Green Party Ministers, who were participants throughout the process, did not shout "Stop". If Fianna Fáil Ministers have long grown out of touch, what is the excuse for the Green Party Ministers? Cycling to Cabinet meetings for the cameras does not butter parsnips. We can picture the domestic scene on the eve of Cabinet meetings as the Ministers for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputies Gormley and Ryan, respectively, dismiss their drivers and ask their spouses to leave out their bicycle helmets in the morning as the cameras might be present when they go to the Cabinet meeting. While the novelty may not have worn off for the Green Party Ministers, it has well and truly worn off for the people who are the victims of this budget. There is more to Cabinet decision making than cycling to Government Buildings for photo opportunities.

Last night, I listened to the contribution of Deputy Gogarty who, while in opposition, constantly taunted other Opposition parties about the superiority of his education policies. We should look at the state of his education policies in the context of the 20 page letter the Deputy sent to the Minister for Education and Science in Beijing and which he read out in the House last night. The Deputy's party is in government. While we do not know what Batt of Beijing thinks of the 20 page missive, did Deputy Gogarty indicate he would walk if the agenda he has set out for the Minister is not met?

Deputy Gogarty also stated on a radio programme that he would raise cuts in education at the Joint Committee on Education and Science. He might as well raise the issue in a book club. He should ask the two Ministers from his party to deal with the issue. Deputy Gogarty prevented the Green Party conference from discussing the highlights of the party's time in government, an understandable decision given the absence of any such highlights. The only highlights I have seen since the Green Party entered government are those in Deputy Gogarty's hair and they seem to have disappeared since the crisis started.

This is a budget which hurts the old, children and the working poor. It has attempted to grapple with the yawning hole in the public finances by taxing everything that moves, imposing savings on medical cards for the old and cutting teachers for the young. If one does not have a medical card, one will pay €100 to present at accident and emergency. If one is a small saver, one will pay more DIRT and if one is on social welfare, one will receive €2 extra in the fuel allowance. Meanwhile, there is no sign of any programme to return the economy to growth.

Senior citizens have taken to the streets in their thousands, while students are protesting in a manner not seen for a generation, teachers and parents are on their way to Kildare Street and farmers are revving up in Claremorris. There is a danger that bad government will make the country ungovernable. The people will respond to leadership at a time of economic crisis but decision making which is unfair, ad hoc and not sure-footed will make the crisis worse.

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