Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I am encouraged by the number of people in my constituency of Dún Laoghaire who are contacting me, obviously worried and concerned but also with ideas and suggestions as to how we might turn and what we might do. That shows the genuine concern, interest and fear that exists among people. We are here and we are willing to listen.

There is a perception that the last ten years were spent wasting money and that the next four years will be spent cutting money. Listening to Opposition Members of the House, one would think no new initiatives or reforms were introduced in the last ten years but that we simply spent euro upon euro. I can only speak for my own areas of responsibility in those years, in which it has been my privilege to serve in government. When I was Minister of State with responsibility for children, we introduced the national children's strategy with the aim of giving a voice to children. We have, unfortunately, very sad evidence of where that has not happened and needs to happen in the future. Nevertheless, that strategy was developed and set out.

In my time as Minister for Education and Science between 2004 and 2008, a number of reforms were introduced in the delivery of school building programmes with devolved grants enabling people to get better value and deliver locally. Thousands of school projects were carried out every year and that has transformed the education landscape all over the country. New initiatives were taken in the delivery of primary schools under the auspices of the VECs. Those pilot projects have been implemented and are being spread throughout the country under legislation. New entry requirements into medicine were introduced. For years, people had been talking about what an elitist category this was. The introduction of the HPAT gives a better opportunity to more suitable but still very highly academic people. It is working quite successfully. The introduction of whole school evaluation reformed the way parents, students, teachers and the inspectorate look to see how schools can be changed, reformed and judged and had that publicly done and published in the Department's website. We introduced new ways of reintegrating children with special needs into our schools, with allocations to them, and delivered more than 100 autism units attached to local primary schools, meaning that children with autism could go to the same school as their siblings and be in their own local areas.

On curriculum reform, Project Maths was introduced, has been spread out and is working very successfully. It is a more real and applied way of doing maths. New subjects, including new technology subjects, have been introduced, backed up by capital investment at the time. This too has reformed those subjects. The final initiative I will mention may not have had a big economic impact but it certainly will have an impact on the way go bhfuil an Ghaeilge á labhairt sa tír seo - is é sin, go bhfuil níos mó marcanna ag dul don scrúdú béil. Ciallaíonn sin go gcaithfidh múinteoirí níos mó béime a leagan ar múineadh na Gaeilge agus múineadh teanga na Gaeilge, seachas a bheith ag déanamh na litríochta an t-am ar fad. These are real changes to the education system that will not only reform the way people teach and learn but will also have a significant economic impact.

During my time as Minister for Social and Family Affairs, we were able to provide increases to social welfare benefits but, unfortunately, had to cut back on certain payments subsequently. The cuts made between 2008 and 2010 were matched by serious reforms, including a clamp-down on fraud, interagency and cross-Border co-operation and new technologies and signing on systems, which saved money for the Exchequer. We changed the way 18 and 19 year olds are treated in the social welfare system to give them an incentive to work and commenced the process of reforming payments for lone parents. We recognised that people with disabilities have abilities and should be considered on the basis of their capability to work rather than their inability to do so. Furthermore, during my time in the Department of Social and Family affairs, we finalised the long-term framework for pensions in this country so that we can support people in work as long as they are able and save money for the taxpayer while continuing to support older people.

I acknowledge the expenditures of the last years of the Celtic tiger. Members of this House, both in Opposition and in Government, wanted us to further increase our spending but reforms were also introduced that fostered real change in society and the economy. The same process will unfold over the next several years and we will not focus solely on removing money from the economy. It seems people are under the impression that Ministers take no responsibility for balancing the human impact of what we are doing. We do not sit around the Cabinet table with our calculators stuck on the minus key. We examine the proposals that come from all of our respective Departments so that we can understand what is happening across the Government. For example, we are considering the impact of changes in the education system on working families and how this will add to reforms to health and transport. We take account of the human impact of every change proposed. This is why we met on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and will meet again tomorrow, next Monday and Tuesday and over the coming weekends.

It is not just a question of the figures. Ultimately, we have to find €15 billion but we have to understand the personal implications of this adjustment for every individual in this country, whether a member of a working family, a welfare recipient or an older person, and ensure the combined impact of cuts and changes is not overly severe on any one group. We take our responsibilities very seriously but it does not help that we are accused of being people who lack a sense of attachment to the public or do not have the welfare and future of this country at heart.

My three specific areas of responsibility are tourism, culture and sport. In recent years, everyone has come to recognise the economic potential of the tourism sector, which employs 190,000 people. We want to maintain this level of employment and we have identified it as an area which we can expand through good marketing and the use of new media to get our message across. It was encouraging that a recent issue of The New York Times contained a three-page feature about the beauty of Ireland and our potential as a great escape. That sort of advertisement cannot be bought but it builds on the work of our tourism agencies. A previous feature in the culture section of the same newspaper invited people to attend the theatre in Dublin.

We will develop further initiatives to link culture, sports and tourism. When Ireland-England rugby matches are held in Dublin, they generate up to €83 million and a Munster-Ospreys match in Thomond Park generated €10.5 million. This is why we successfully attracted the Solheim cup to Killeen Castle, the tall ships race to Wexford and the Volvo ocean race to Galway. Other new initiatives include the Dublin Contemporary 2011. Dublin libraries took the initiative to get Dublin designated as UNESCO city of literature, which will not only give recognition to the city and its writers but also attract visitors to the country, and Dublin City Council is seeking to have Dublin designated as a city of design. These initiatives are aimed at finding ways of restoring our faith in ourselves as a community as well as generating work and income.

Significant progress has already been made on the areas in my remit and even though cuts will be required, these will be matched by new ways of doing business and delivering for the future of this country. It is not all about €15 billion in cuts; it is about supporting the best of what we have and keeping the long-term future of the country close to our hearts.

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