Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

In my county, Louth, 14,700 people are out of work. Every day I met families who are finding it harder and harder to put food on their table. Some of my constituents have literally come to me in tears and despair at the desperate economic situation they find themselves in. They are looking for help and support, they are worried for themselves and deeply concerned for their children's future. We, too, are worried for them and for families across Ireland who are facing the toughest times for a generation. Up and down the country people are angry at the hammering they have taken in this budget at the hands of Fianna Fáil and the Greens. Since Brian Cowen became Taoiseach, 171,000 people have lost their jobs.

It is said that breakfast roll man may have put this Government into power but, by God, bread-line man will kick them out, and the sooner they do it the better. This Government can run but it cannot hide. It has been in power for 18 of the past 20 years. God knows, it took the credit for the good times, now it will take the blame for the bad. The human cost for children, struggling mothers and middle income families is all too real. Gombeen men have plundered the economy and the Government pretends it did not know it was happening. It knew all right, and was implicated in it all the way up in the culture of the wink and the nod, the tip of the hat to the chosen few, the insider deals where the rich got richer and the poor got fooled.

What now for the taxpayer bailing out developers to the tune of €80 billion? What does the Minister say to those children whose parents have lost their jobs because of his Government's mismanagement? What does he say to those families, 800 every day, who are lining up on the bread lines in Dublin? In what city or town will the bread lines come next? What responsibility does the Minister take for the emigrant boats and planes that will shortly be leaving our country? Has he no shame? The boom-bust legacy of Fianna Fáil has driven hundreds of thousands out of work with appalling economic, social and personal cost. We can never again have such a false Government or economy built on the treacherous, greedy, grasping and grubby cabal of bankers, builders and Fianna Fáil. The country has had enough. It is time for change.

The national development plan should be changed utterly and pride of place given to labour-intensive projects. Now is the time to build. Construction costs have fallen by 20%. We want Ireland positioned to come roaring out of this recession. Economic recovery demands new and vital transport infrastructure. It is folly for the Government to cut back our roads programme when construction costs are lower than at the height of the boom. The Minister for Transport, Deputy Dempsey has announced €315 million of cuts in capital spending on transport infrastructure.

City and county councils should be prioritised under a national development plan to play a very important part and select local programmes which can very quickly give a positive jobs impetus with clearly manageable costs. There are hundreds of practical local improvement schemes throughout the country in county council offices, which could create thousands of local jobs. Under the national development plan money can be given to county councils to do this. Many will involve local bypasses, repairing crumbling roads, improving bridges, removing dangerous bends and improving parking facilities. These projects would be labour intensive rather than high-tech, using the shovel, spade and JCB. They could provide significant opportunities for small and medium construction companies.

Bad planning destroys society. There must be an end to the planning scandals and concrete jungles with no public transport, isolated, neglected and ignored communities on the outskirts of our towns and cities. How many of our citizens live in dilapidated estates far from shops, schools, churches and work? How many hours each day do mums and dads lose in traffic gridlock instead of having quality family time at home? We need to develop new policies in land use and spatial planning, so that our urban communities and settlements are more dense and compact, balanced and linked to public transport. Fine Gael recognises - and it is time the Greens did - that owning a car is more expensive, pollutes more, increases congestion and wastes energy while public transport is the most attractive in cost, service and speed of getting to work. We recognise that it is also critically important to promote cycling and walking.

The Minister, Deputy Dempsey, has slashed the transport budget by €315 million. He has abandoned plans announced only two months ago to upgrade roads around the country. This will cost jobs in local government and will cost lives as a result of further accident blackspots.

The Minister has done a complete U-turn on road safety and maintenance works. He unveiled a major programme last February to repair Ireland's network of local and regional roads. At the time he said: "The programme involves projects in all areas that support employment and economic activity." Yet he has cut these programmes by €150 million. That is a 25% cut in local government spending on regional and local roads for the rest of the year. In the run up to the local and European elections, we all know the bad state of our roads. We are travelling on the highways and byways and the Government will also discover the bad state of them. The potholes are not being filled, and they will not be filled this year. This will have a significant impact on economic and employment activity in literally every county. The local roads programme has been slashed. It would have provided much needed construction jobs in every town in the country in these tough times. It would have improved access, encouraged economic activity and addressed the risk posed by dangerous roads. It would have had a significant impact on road safety.

The largest number of fatal accidents occur on rural roads. Some 70% of all fatal accidents in 2007 occurred on rural roads. The Government is cutting the budget for the repair and improvement of roads and for the removal of dangerous bends. The state of our roads will deteriorate. The Government is also cutting the advertising budget of Road Safety Authority, which has run excellent campaigns. Thanks to the Minister for Transport, some of the most dangerous stretches of our roads will remain in place for years to come. These roads are the economic arteries of local communities. Local and regional roads account for 94% of the road network. They carry 60% of all traffic and 43% of all goods traffic. They are vital to local economies.

The impact of the reductions are significant and I will record some of them. On the Irish Rail network programme, the Minister is postponing work on the Maynooth line such that a railway order for that work will not take place in time. That is directly associated and will impact significantly on the DART underground programme. The Minister is postponing preparatory work for a railway order for track works between Cherry Orchard and Inchicore. He is postponing work on road crossing automation and the national CTC signalling system. Safety is being neglected in this instance.

The Minister is postponing construction of a new railway station at Kilbarry in Cork. He is reducing the 2009 allocation for railway safety by €10 million, which is a damning indictment He is delaying the completion and submission of the railway order application for metro west and other significant transport projects are being affected in the gridlocked greater Dublin area. He is cutting traffic management grants by €10 million in the greater Dublin area. This will result in more traffic problems at intersections, but that does not matter to Ministers because their drivers can use the bus lanes while the rest of us have to queue in traffic for hours.

The Minister is withdrawing €5 million for the provision of park and ride facilities in the greater Dublin area. The Tánaiste can laugh but the motorists caught in traffic do not laugh.

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