Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Right-wing policies pursued by a right-wing Government ultimately killed off these jobs. In the same way, in spite of the prosperity of the Celtic tiger years the telecommunications infrastructure in this State is substandard because right-wing policies pursued by a right-wing Government led to the privatisation of Eircom. That was one of the greatest ever swindles of the public and we are all paying the price today.

The causes of the economic recession here and the reasons for the disastrous decisions of this Government are deep rooted. Policies pursued by Fianna Fáil-led Governments since 1997 have led us to where we are today. The Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dick Roche, claimed today on radio that nobody in political life objected to the total dependence on the construction boom and the property bubble which was so clearly responsible for the depth of the recession in this State compared to other EU states. The Minister of State's claim is completely false.

His colleague, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, made a similar claim in April when he said, "Some did warn that the housing market was unsustainable. Plenty did not". We in Sinn Féin stand on our record in that regard. In November 2003 at the Construction Industry Federation conference, the then Minister for Finance at the time, Charlie McCreevy, actually asked for advice on housing policy from the assembled developers and property speculators. I stated at the time that the Government, in tandem with the same developers and property speculators, was directly responsible for the spiralling price of houses.

It was at the behest of the Construction Industry Federation that the Government gutted section 5 of the Planning Act 2000, which required 20% of new developments to consist of social and affordable housing. The housing policy of the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrat Governments was totally market driven and as a result we had massive local authority waiting lists. Even people on above average incomes could not afford a home. Between 1998 and 2003, the price of a new house in the State rose on average by 177%. In terms of policy, nothing has changed. The recent budget slashed the funding for the provision of social housing by local authorities. Clearly, the Government has learned nothing from the failures of the past decade and acknowledges no fault. That is galling and infuriates many people throughout the country.

As well as mounting an assault on low to middle income earners, the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government is imposing savage cuts on public services that will have extremely damaging long-term consequences. Our public health services, already badly affected by cuts since autumn 2007, face nothing short of disaster, but the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, tries to maintain the fiction that she is maintaining services to patients while services are being reduced or removed altogether. The Government has placed an embargo on the filling of almost all posts in the public health service. In addition, it is expected that contracts for up to 14,000 workers in the health services will not be renewed. This is a recipe for disaster in our public health services.

HSE senior management has indicated it was not consulted prior to the Government's announcement of the embargo on 26 March, but it is required nevertheless to implement the decision. The Irish Nurses Organisation and SIPTU have indicated to the HSE that it will not be possible to run the public health service in the context of the recruitment embargo as announced by Government. Communities in Clare and north Tipperary have had 24-hour accident and emergency cover removed from the hospitals in Ennis and Nenagh, placing the regional hospital in Limerick under enormous pressure. Breast cancer services have also been removed from the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, placing Beaumont Hospital under more pressure. Monaghan General Hospital is about to lose its last remaining acute hospital services. Hospital services in Cork and Kerry are to be centralised in Cork city.

Waiting lists and accident and emergency queues are as bad as ever and will worsen with the massive cuts in jobs in the public health service. Those nurses who have not been laid off now face a doubled income and health levy as well as the public services pension levy. At the same time, the Minister has given a gold-plated guarantee to hospital consultants that their €250,000 per annum contract will not be touched. This contract is for a 33-hour week in the public system and consultants can still work up to 25% of that time in private practice. Even at that, hours are not properly monitored, leaving a question over time spent in and commitment to the public health system by some consultants. They in turn tarnish the public's view of all practitioners at that level.

The Government has repeatedly claimed that one of the factors that made us an economic success story was a young, well educated workforce, but what has the Government done to education? It has cut €30 million from the school building programme. This comes on top of the education cuts already introduced, which hit the most vulnerable, such as children with special needs. The cut in the school building is pure folly, not only in terms of education but of public spending and employment. Children will continue to be taught in overcrowded and sub-standard classrooms. There are 1,400 schools on the school building waiting list. Some 100,000 additional pupils will enter primary school over the next decade, but the question remains as to where they will be accommodated.

In the past three years, the Government has spent €113 million on the rental of school prefabs. The Minister for Education and Science has projected a further spend of €48 million on prefabs for 2009. The annual average cost to the Department for each prefab is €12,500. Therefore, the cut in the school programme is bad for the public finances. It will cost far more in the long run and will guarantee rental income to companies supplying prefabs but leave schools with deteriorating and, eventually, useless and worthless units. These already exist in every constituency throughout the country. The Government should increase and frontload the school building programme as part of a job creation strategy, as proposed by Sinn Féin in our comprehensive employment retention and creation document, Getting Ireland Back to Work.

I would like to speak about the situation in the Border counties. One would have hoped that the Cabinet in recent years, which included - reflective of constituency returns - Deputies whose roots were in Border constituencies, would have demonstrated an understanding and a concentration on the needs of Border communities. However, over the past 12 months we have witnessed businesses closing every week. Lights are going out in businesses for the last time and people's hopes, expectations and years of hard work and investment are lost to themselves, their families and their communities. This story applies in all large and small towns along the Border, but there has been no move to address it.

We are all aware of the difficulties that arise when we have two currencies on the same island and of what variations in currency can do to the movement of people and the attraction to shop on either side. However, the Government has not put any thought into a solution and there has been no engagement with the Northern Assembly representatives to explore with them, prior to exploration with the British Government, the potential that could be realised for the economies North and South of the Border by the introduction of a single currency, the euro, throughout the island of Ireland.

There has been no address of the benefits that could be gained by working towards tax harmonisation. We have huge differentials currently, between a 15% VAT rate north of the Border and 21.5% south of the Border. These issues must be addressed. There is no point in saying they will not be discussed. We must engage with civic society in order to build momentum for these essential changes. They are not only essential to the Border counties, but to explore the economies of counties further south than the Border, where the exodus is also clearly in evidence over recent months. This is in the interest of everyone and is not meant to arrest movement one way or the other. This is a cycle. People north of the Border are aware that while they currently face boom times in Border towns, in counties Derry, Fermanagh, Armagh and Down and parts of County Tyrone, they knew the other side of the coin not many months ago. They know that will return. How can people invest in business in the Border counties and how can they build on such uncertain foundations? These are foundations of sand, where people have no control and no certainty for the future. It is critical that the Government demonstrates an awareness of the acute difficulties that apply to establishing and sustaining business in the Border counties. I commend these measures to the Tánaiste in an appeal to start the process of engagement. She would be surprised to find people in business north of the Border, from very different political outlooks, who are open to discussion and exploration of these matters. They know that, for all our sakes, there is no other way. This is like the elephant in the room; everyone is ignoring it. Yet, this is what must be done.

There is also the issue of the duplication of bureaucracies. This ridiculous situation reflects itself time after time. Competing agencies north and south of the Border operate on the international stage in competition for inward investment and in a raft of other areas. We must work towards the creation of a common international presentation and commendation of the rewards that await inward investors on the island of Ireland, as we have done in the tourist field. We must recognise that back-to-back delivery systems in health, education and public transport contribute to an imperfect situation in which people get poor return for their tax payments. I urge the Government to look at the potential, which is realisable where there is political will. I believe there is the political will to engage and explore among people of a wide range of political opinion north of the Border. I have not seen a willingness to explore on this side of the Border. That baffles me.

The Government is bankrupt, not only in terms of Exchequer returns but in ideas and skills. It is time for its members to pack up their bags and follow the Taoiseach out the back door.

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