James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for his amusing discourse, but I will have to comment on one or two things. He said the Taoiseach was trying to be honest this morning, but was he honest when he said the fundamentals were sound at the last general election? He talked about the degree of cynicism in the country, but that has come because his Government has been in office for 18 of the past 20 years. I do not think anybody doubts that. Political currency is at a low ebb because of all the scandals that have affected Fianna Fáil over the years, but I will not waste any time on that issue.

It is great to hear of the bond floatation, but I wonder how well it would do today. Bank shares were up last night, but are on the floor today. That is the reality out there. Coming up to this budget everybody knew that things were bad, but that is because of mismanagement by the Government. The Taoiseach's assertion some weeks back that nobody could have seen this coming is simply untrue. Many economists, including David McWilliams and the aforementioned George Lee, warned about this from quite a way back. They may take some comfort from being right, but they certainly do not take pleasure or glee in it.

Back in 2002, Deputy Richard Bruton warned about the over reliance on property as a way of creating wealth, but the Government was deaf to these calls for a change of tack. Indeed, those who raised their voices were accused of sabotage and treachery. We are where we are, however, so one could only hope that this budget would address the issues in a fair, equitable and sustainable fashion. Fine Gael asked that the emphasis should be on spending cuts and to a lesser extent raising more through taxes by broadening the tax base, but the Government steadfastly failed to listen.

We now have a situation where middle income families who took a €3,500 hit last October are now faced with another €4,500 hit in this budget. That is an €8,000 hit on a €60,000 income. That is just hammering middle earners and the pain they feel will not result in any improvement in services - rather the reverse. I will return to that point.

There is nothing in the budget to create new jobs or stimulate the economy and, most frightening of all, we are now committed to up to €90 billion to bail out the banks and developers. Notwithstanding that, the very same banks are now charging people arrangement fees for new loans when their existing facility comes to an end. The banks are failing to pass on interest rate cuts from the European Central Bank. Never mind a moratorium for people in difficulty with mortgages, which was mentioned earlier, the banks will not even give them a fair break in moving from a fixed to a variable interest rate.

Somebody recently e-mailed me after asking their lender how much it would cost to change their mortgage. They were quoted €17,000 and could not believe it, so they rang back and were told by another person that it would cost €25,000. They asked for the quote in writing and the letter said €27,000. The banks are a law unto themselves and we are bailing them out. The Government is giving them taxpayers' money, yet they seem helpless and hopeless in instructing the banks to behave in a responsible fashion. The modus operandi seems to be that we bear the pain while they take all the gain.

This morning, I spoke to an estate agent with several deals on the table who said that the banks are going through a process, but that is all it is - there is no intention to complete the loan agreement. There are continual questions to give an aura or impression of real activity, but there is none.

Where is the stimulus to help people hold onto their jobs at SR Technics? Meanwhile, metro west is gone, but the Minister says metro north will go ahead. We have not seen much about it in the budget, however. This is one of the NDP's infrastructural developments that should go ahead because it would yield a huge amount of jobs and further potential development in the north Dublin area, where there are many young, educated people. It also forms the spine that integrates the entire Dublin rail network.

We have heard the Government talk the talk about jobs, but it would not walk the walk with the staff of SR Technics. It has not walked the walk with the people of Balbriggan either, where the unemployment rate is just under 4,000 - that is up 9.5% - yet there is no dole office there. There has been a lack of forward planning. Even though they knew the people there were going to retire and the contract was up, they made no arrangements to put a second facility in place. The main street of Balbriggan is full of property that could be used for that purpose.

The area that concerns me most is health. A few weeks ago, the Minister told us that we are spending €4 billion on private health care. Add that to the €15 billion spent by the HSE and another €1 billion in the Department of Health and Children, and the total health spend in this country is now €20 billion. The HSE is currently looking at a shortfall in funding. It will make up €160 million in a health levy, which is being doubled. That is another tax on people, many of whom did not even know they were paying it, but they will know now when they see it doubled.

The HSE is hoping it will have a supplementary budget, which will be another hit somewhere in the tax system, for the increasing number of medical cards for those who have lost their jobs due to the Government's mismanagement of the economy. There will still be a €147 million deficit, but the Minister has said the HSE will have to meet this itself within its own budgetary allocation. The history of the HSE concerning what it calls budgetary readjustments is that patients suffer, waiting lists lengthen, operations are cancelled and more people lie on trolleys around the country. That has been the stark reality in the past. It is clear that €147 million in savings will mean exactly that again, only worse.

What is so disappointing about the budget in general, and the health budget in particular, is that there is no attempt at reform, despite what the Minister said. There will be no redundancies and no attack on waste in our hospitals or on the inherent inefficiencies. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the greater Dublin area where hundreds of patients are lying in hospital beds when their acute phase of treatment is over. They need community facilities but they are not getting them. Nursing Homes Ireland has told us that 250 beds are available in the greater Dublin area, but these patients are not being discharged. In a recent letter to the newspapers, one hospital consultant said that while the front door is open and people are coming in, the back door is locked and they cannot get out. That is what is happening here, so instead of a smooth transition of patients through accident and emergency, into the hospital for treatment and then discharge to complete their recovery in the community, they are stuck in a hospital bed. That backs up the whole system.

This is a management issue, over which doctors, nurses, porters and health care assistants have no control. It will not be improved by a new hospital consultant contract and will certainly not be improved by the recent suggestion that temporary staff will be let go in the HSE. Of the 14,000 temporary staff who it is proposed not to rehire, approximately 4,000 are nurses. This represents more than one tenth of the nursing complement in the health service. Has anyone done a health impact assessment on this decision? Will Beaumont Hospital, for example, lose 10%, 20% or 30% of its beds? A similar development in England gave rise to a scandal involving hundreds of deaths and the launch of a major investigation.

In the brief time remaining to me, I will provide some statistics on the Dutch health system, which is ranked number one in Europe for quality compared to Ireland's ranking of 11th place. It is also ranked second for value for money, whereas Ireland is ranked number 24 for value for money. The Netherlands does not have waiting lists or GP charges, whereas in Ireland 40,000 people are on waiting lists and the burden of GP care costs is prohibitive for some families in the current climate. The Netherlands has one universal health system with choice for all, while Ireland has a private-public mix with choice for some and none for others. While patients do not lie on trolleys in Dutch hospitals, more than 380 patients regularly wait on trolleys in our hospital system. The Dutch spend €60 billion per annum on the health care of 16 million people, while Ireland spends €20 billion per annum on a population of 4.2 million. We are not getting value for money.

We cannot protect our young children against cervical cancer or provide medical cards for our elderly. We also insist on putting young people with cystic fibrosis at risk in open wards, with the result that such patients die many years younger here than they do 40 miles up the road in Northern Ireland. It is now proposed to remove the other grant available to older people, that is, the scheme used by community groups across the country to provide a variety of services, including monitored personal security alarms. Having removed the security provided by a medical card, the Government is proposing to remove elderly people's sense of personal safety.

The final insult is the decision by the Minister for Health and Children to form a new quango to advise her on the allocation of health resources. This is a clear admission of the Government's cluelessness in recent years about how billions of euro should have been spent on health. This is a lazy budget which takes the soft option of hitting taxpayers and patients. On that basis, I must oppose it. It is a classic case of billions for our bankers but not even a few million for our children.

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