Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

Through the successful efforts of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, our public health budget subsidises the private health care sector to the tune of billions of euro although not everyone can afford private health care. This is where savings could have been made instead of sacking nurses, cutting front-line services and closing wards and beds. That is what Ministers would have done if they had any moral fibre.

Once again the Government has opted for flat rate reductions in child benefit, which is paid to every child in recognition of the fact that this State does not provide free health care, free education or free anything for children. In this State, a parent has to pay a doctor an average of €60 to have a six week old baby treated. If the Tánaiste believes that some parents can afford to get by without this benefit, she should have gone after their incomes through the tax system. She cannot justify going after the payment in a way that hits poor and rich alike.

Health spending is to be cut by €1.4 billion over the term of the four year plan. The Government wants to take out €746 million next year. The health system is already in crisis, with services being cut across the State. I have seen first-hand in Sligo and Letterkenny hospitals the destruction that successive budgets have done to our health service. One has only to consider the distance that many patients are forced to travel to access health services, the length of the waiting lists or the numbers who are waiting on trolleys.

If these cuts are implemented there is no doubt that waiting lists will lengthen. Understaffing will result in further misdiagnoses and more people will be left on trolleys for days. These health cuts will cost lives. Even while waiting lists grow and patients suffer as they wait for operations, over 1,500 beds lie closed in our public hospitals due to cuts. The cuts in this budget will close hundreds, if not thousands, more public hospital beds. Prescription charges have already been imposed on medical card holders while drug companies continue to make vast profits. In the past week an average of 300 patients were on trolleys in accident and emergency units in our public hospitals.

The recruitment ban in the health services means that fully trained nurses and doctors are being educated to the highest standard but forced to emigrate with their degrees. This budget will accelerate the brain drain from our health services. Supporting and funding preventative health makes sense and saves money. Cutting funds for these services makes no sense. Has nothing been learnt from the disastrous health cuts of the 1980s? The cruel reality in the years ahead will be that if one has money one will live but if one cannot pay, one may die.

Overall, this is a terrible budget for education. In times of recession we need to make education the gateway to recovery. Year after year, this Government did the opposite by imposing cuts on the disadvantaged, school buildings, special needs and capitation grants, as well as charging fees to students. This Government is intent on making education the preserve of the rich. Gone are the days of free education and back are the days of underfunded schools and exorbitant fees.

The Government is introducing an overall reduction of 21% in capital expenditure for education, including 9% for primary schools and a whopping 20% for secondary schools. This is a scandalous situation. Children will continue to be educated in prefabs. Money will continue to be wasted by being paid in rent to private prefab suppliers. Classes will be unable to cope with more children and less room. We could have invested in school buildings. We could have created much-needed employment in the construction sector by taking off the dole those who have skills to build schools and classrooms.

The capitation funding for primary schools is being reduced by 5%. Schools are already struggling with large class sizes and limited resources. The Government is now limiting these resources even further. The capitation grant pays for the day-to-day running of schools. The reduction will force schools to rely on families to fund raise in order to keep their doors open. Special needs education is being cut by 2%. We have already seen special education classes close down and special needs assistants sacked. What happened to protecting the vulnerable?

Grants to secondary schools will be cut by 9%, VECs will suffer a 3% cut and the registration fee is being increased to €2,000. This is tantamount to introducing tuition fees through the back door. The Government purports to want to build a knowledge economy. The reality is this fee will lead to thousands of young people being unable to attend college or get a third level education.

Once again the Government has brought forward a budget that contains no real funding for a stimulus plan. It has rolled out Minister after Minister to speak about stimuli. The IDA and Enterprise Ireland have announced job creation numbers to beat the band but nobody has spelt out how this will work or how it will be paid for. The Government estimated in the four year-plan that there would be a 0.25% net employment loss in 2011. There are almost 450,000 people unemployed now, yet the Government is planning for even higher unemployment levels. Fianna Fáil and the other parties talk about stimulus, but none of them has real plans or costings to back this up. Sinn Féin has a plan. We propose a once-off transfer of €7 billion from the National Pensions Reserve Fund for a jobs stimulus. This amount is the equivalent of what was pumped into our banks at the start of this year. Instead, the Government is agreeing with the IMF and the EU in proposing to take billions from the same pensions reserve fund and put it into a black hole, which is the banking system. With the right policies and supports, jobs can be created in sectors such as agrifood, tourism, IT and green technologies. We can have a new generation of entrepreneurs and revitalise the co-operative sector.

The Government can always find additional billions to invest in banks but it cannot find a single cent to invest in economic recovery. We have shown where money can be found. It is the domestic economy, in which people live, that is flatlining and that needs attention.

The public will not take this budget on the chin. They have forced the Government to call an early election and they gave their assessment of the Government's budget and economic plans in the Donegal South West by-election. They have given their assessment and they will give it again in the new year, when the people have their opportunity to do so.

No one believes Deputy Michael Noonan will be a better or fairer Minister for Finance than the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan. His actions as Minister for Health give the answer to that question. Fine Gael subscribes to the same economic policies as the Government. It is farcical for that party to make a judgment on the budget. No one can understand why Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are still two separate parties. They are joined at the hip, as is seen in their policies.

It is clear that the Labour Party will accept and implement Fine Gael policies, because it has no alternative to offer. Deputy Eamon Gilmore's personal ratings may still be high in the polls, but more and more people are beginning to see that the emperor has no clothes.

The Government needs to go and the budget needs to be scrapped. All parties need to give a commitment to introduce a budget after the general election to reverse these cuts.

See this speech in context