Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The review of the programme for Government does not replace the budgetary process in any given financial year but the overall parameters under which the programme for Government operates remain the same as have been outlined in the budgetary statement by the Minister for Finance in overall terms in April. The overall economic realities remain the same and it is important to point out that such is the case. Every programme for Government must be subject to the availability of resources at any given time. This review highlights some of the priority areas.

On the question of any specific issue related to education, parliamentary questions may be put to the Minister, who is involved at present in bilateral budgetary discussions with the Minister for Finance. We have outlined the areas to which we intend to give priority. The Deputy will be aware of our position in regard to the teachers. The provision of sufficient funding for that purpose will be required in future budgets. While the overall education budget has yet to be fixed in terms of what is available and what is possible, we are at this point indicating a preparedness to move on some of those areas as outlined in the programme for Government. It is a question of setting out a priority without indicating the status quo in respect of every aspect of the programme.

On the issue of social welfare payments and public sector pay, the position is simple. We have a situation in this country whereby we are spending more than €55 billion and taking in only €32 billion. We have to make a serious correction during the course of the budget. As indicated in April that correction is of the order of €4 billion. One cannot reduce expenditure by that amount simply by looking at the cost of providing services. If, for illustration purposes, this was to be achieved on a one-third, one-third, one-third basis across the board one would be seeking a cut in the provision of services of 25%, which is not tenable. One must look at every area of expenditure, including the overall social welfare budget and public sector pay and pension bill, if one is to make the corrections that are necessary.

It is time that everybody in this House acknowledged that regardless of the various aspects of the corrections, this is the scale of the difficulty facing us, in terms of the public finances, that must be addressed. We are seeking to do this over a number of years as it cannot be done overnight. In this regard we are trying to stabilise what is a high deficit position this year going into next year and to do this in a way that meets the requirements of the situation, which is what is required of all of us. We would like to see a nationally supported effort in that effort. The idea, which has once again been suggested, that nothing in terms of two-thirds of expenditure in the public purse can be touched is not a realistic starting point from which to address the scale of the problems we face.

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