Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

Although it is late in the evening and not many Members are present, I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak for the first time on the budget. In particular, I wish to use some of my time to concentrate on the education cutbacks, which constituted a highly negative and retrograde step. I also will focus on the vulnerable in our society and those who cannot speak for themselves. Members, who were candidates during the last general election, are fully aware of the impact that reducing the pupil-teacher ratio will have on schools, on the children who are there to be educated and on the teachers, as well as of the associated stress that will spill over into family life.

This is an era in which there is supposed to be a focus on education. All one hears from the Minister and the Government is that education is extremely important and that young people must be attracted into the sciences, engineering and mathematics. They are to be encouraged not alone to finish their second level education but to participate in third level education. However, unless young people are provided with the requisite support, we will be making the job much more difficult. As children become older, they reach an age at which they should take an interest in science and in their education and should feel both challenged and confident in facing such subjects. However, if they do not receive the support they need during their primary education, they certainly will not follow through at second level.

The statistics and arguments can be read on the websites of the INTO and the ASTI. All Members are fully aware of the implications that such cutbacks and the cutback on pupil-teacher ratios in particular will have on children. This measure, combined with the capping of the number of language support teachers, certainly will increase pressure on teachers themselves. Their professional role is to instill knowledge, encourage children to develop through their education and be in a position to face State examinations. Such a negative, retrograde step as that will ensure teachers will not be able to do what their training and profession demands of them. I am confident that at some stage we will emerge from the recession, but it will take many years to reverse the cutbacks. The vote we had in this House last week underlined the Government's commitment to the cutbacks. When one leaves primary education, one does not have another opportunity to get to grips with reading, writing and arithmetic — the three Rs. Secondary school is a different scenario and is much more challenging and pupils need to be equipped with the basics. I am not a teacher, but I am a parent and I know well the value and importance of primary education in particular.

Having received many e-mails last week from secondary schools, I am concerned at the impact of the education cuts on less popular subjects. In one case I had an e-mail from the principal of a girls' secondary school who is trying to encourage and foster physics and chemistry. One class had 14 students and there were 16 students in another. The school is in danger of losing one of those class teachers and that subject will be lost to the girls. I am sure a similar situation will arise in some boys' schools also. Those students will miss out on a very valuable opportunity as a result of the negative cutbacks. Primary school children will never recover from the neglect that will result from the cutbacks. Students who have become used to a range of subjects will also be affected by cutbacks and some subjects will not be available in certain schools. Every school has a different story. I am sure that as the weeks and months go by we will all become familiar with them, especially now that schools are back from the mid-term break.

I was interested to read an article in a newspaper today about partnerships sought between schools and computer firms to encourage investment in ICT. Reference was made to the Minister's longer term goal of increasing the take-up of science and engineering courses at third level in the building of Ireland's knowledge economy. We all applaud that. It is a wonderful goal, but it is not a long-term goal. It should be today's goal. We are a small country that needs to compete internationally. Our success to date has been based on our ability to attract foreign direct investment as well as investment from indigenous companies. One of our greatest assets was our young, highly educated workforce. The future would appear to be hopeless given that we have a Minister whose long-term goal is to attract young people to take up the study of science and engineering. We should have been doing that before now. The Minister's objective should be to increase the take-up of science and engineering subjects. Microsoft, Intel and other such companies that have invested here need high-level graduates in those subjects. Currently, many companies employ immigrants and that situation cannot last forever. As a country we need to create our own engineers, scientists and computer graduates to take up the jobs that already exist and those we hope to attract.

What really shocked me in the budget was the blatant nature of the cutbacks. There was no emphasis on reform or investing in our future, or no clear message as to how the Government sees us moving forward. The debacle with the medical cards for over 70s was reversed when the Government realised how unpopular it was not just with the over 70s, but with their families and friends. Young people did not want to be part of a society which made that type of statement. When the Government realised how unpopular a move it was, it turned its focus on general practitioners and expected them to bail it out. We have yet to see that happen. The removal of the medical cards from some people over 70 was a totally unnecessary step that caused huge anger.

Likewise, I was shocked to hear on the news tonight that the Minister for Health and Children has scrapped the introduction of the vaccination programme for cervical cancer, which had been outlined in September for young girls aged between 12 and 14. Such an approach has proven to be successful and would have reduced the number of deaths from cervical cancer year on year. Currently, it is estimated that 70 people per year die from the disease. That is another negative and backward step to take. The vaccination programme was a major topic of discussion during the previous election. I am very much aware of the matter and had been lobbied locally about it. I had raised the issue with the Minister and was delighted to hear the vaccination programme was being introduced. It was a positive step but now we find the programme is being scrapped, although no mention of it was made in the budget. How many more such cuts will be slipped in?

I noted the Minister's reference in his budget speech to a tax of €200 for car parking spaces in large urban areas. It is described as an environmental measure but we have yet to see how it will work. I have no objection to such a tax if there is an alternative means of public transport, but in many areas there is not. In Cork, many people work in large factory units in industrial estates on the edge of the city and such people do not have a direct bus connection. They are entirely dependent on their cars to get to work. One cannot introduce a tax of that nature until such time as an alternative means of transport is provided. Getting to work by public transport is fine if one is living on a direct bus route or if one has access to the Luas in Dublin, but in cases where one has no other means of getting to work — through a failure on the part of the State — I would not support the introduction of such a tax.

The Acting Chairman, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, will be aware of similar areas in Limerick where a business located inside the city boundary is employing people and paying rates that are very welcome, yet a similar company located just over the city boundary in the county area with perhaps 200 car parking spaces would not be liable for the charge. Such a tax would be an incentive for an employee to move from a company located in a city area to one located in a county area with a resultant loss of revenue to the city in rates. There would also be a loss to city centre businesses and services from staff working in that area. The measure is ill-thought out. I accept that such a measure should be considered if an alternative, reliable public transport system is in place but until such time as we have that, the tax should not be introduced. The increase in VAT is unnecessary. It will contribute to inflation and discourage people from spending, especially on services. I would have thought the approach to the budget would have been to keep taxes down and seek savings where possible.

Fine Gael produced budgetary proposals prior to the budget. The budget should certainly have encouraged people to spend money and should not have discouraged them by increasing VAT rates. Fine Gael recommended savings in Departments and a very controversial proposal to freeze public sector pay for those earning over €50,000. This has met with the approval of those I have spoken to recently. Parents of children in classes of 35 next September would certainly prefer to take a pay freeze if earning over €50,000 than to have the focus on their children removed. They do not want their children neglected and subjected to negative measures that will affect them for life.

There were ways of budgeting without slashing and burning, as it has been described, and without increasing taxes and making the major cuts we have witnessed. Such measures would not have affected those in the front line or the vulnerable, who do not have a voice. I commend those over 70 because they certainly made their voice heard two weeks ago during the debate on the budget in the House. I was amazed to see at least 15,000 people turning up on the streets and making their objections known to the Government. While I would not commend the treatment of many Members and while I have heard some stories of quite unpleasant events and altercations, there was, nonetheless, a considerable silent majority that was shocked at the way the elderly were treated and at the attitude to them in the Government's announcements.

I want to refer to the regeneration of the docklands in Cork. Mention was made of Seveso sites in the budget and grant aid was provided to ensure they could be remediated. Seveso sites, such as those with liquid storage tanks and fertilizer factories, are potentially dangerous to those living near them. There are three such sites in the docklands in Cork and they must be moved, at considerable expense, if we are to ensure the development of the docklands. That they were mentioned in the budget and that supports were announced to facilitate their removal is welcome. I will have an opportunity to speak on this matter on the Adjournment so I will not dwell on it now. It was a positive move and, for the first time, the potential to regenerate and develop our docklands has been recognised.

The budget presented an opportunity for the Government to do something creative and send out a positive message although we are experiencing tough times. The problems we face are not solely the result of the global economic downturn since many of them are of the Government's making. This is because of complete over-reliance on tax revenue from the property sector, which has now collapsed. Revenue from this sector has been very much below what was expected. Poor results were reported in this regard on the news tonight.

An increasing number of people are losing jobs. Tonight we discussed a Private Members' motion, moved by Deputy Varadkar, on employment and noted people are losing jobs every day. We hear of the job losses that make the headlines but do not hear about the small and medium enterprises that are letting go one to three people. These numbers are adding up and contribute to a total of 720 job losses per week. Those who lose jobs will either be claiming social welfare payments or looking to the State to retrain them so as to gain employment.

The outlook is stark. I support the Private Members' motion before the House this week that points to the need to focus on those who have lost their jobs to ensure they can be retrained, upskilled and given the necessary qualifications to regain employment. Opportunities exist in the green energy and services sectors. It cannot be all doom and gloom but we need to recognise times have changed and that people need skills to face the jobs market. They need to be supported in this regard.

We need to send out a message that, as a country, we have been over-reliant on the property sector. We have not been investing money where we should have been over recent years. The Budget Statement and Minister's recent statement inspire no confidence in this regard. No thought has been put into making savings in the public sector or to investment in capital infrastructure to ensure we will be equipped and fighting fit when the upturn comes and that we will be in our rightful place and play our part as a strong economy, which we have the capacity to redevelop.

I do not support any of the cutbacks and am disappointed there was no imagination or optimism. There was no roadmap indicating where we are going as a country and how the Government will steer us out of this decline.

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