John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I welcome the opportunity of contributing to this debate both as leader of the Green Party and as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. For some time we have known that the budget for 2011 would be very tough. The reality is that our public finances are badly depleted and the country has had to resort to international help from the European Union and the IMF. There are many aspects of the budget, not least welfare cuts and tax hikes for working people, that I dislike.

It is a matter of great regret to my colleagues and I that we, the Irish people, find ourselves in this very difficult situation. Most of us now know that hard budget choices were unavoidable, but in preparing it we have worked to protect key areas of expenditure. Overall and given our very limited room for manoeuvre, we have striven to protect the most vulnerable and provide measures to aid an early recovery. Despite all the reverses suffered in recent weeks, I retain the hope that this recovery can happen sooner rather than later.

The budget priorities the Green Party identified were as follows: protecting investment in education; reducing the costs of the political system; maintaining support for people who are homeless; sustaining forestry investment; defending arts funding; meeting our international obligations; and stimulating jobs and enterprise. I have listened to Deputy Howlin speak about education and a number of issues need to be clarified on this matter. Across all the areas I have mentioned either we have ensured no cut at all or that the cuts were less than those imposed elsewhere. In education, despite massive pressure, we protected the pupil-teacher ratio; we kept the capitation reductions very low; and ensured that third level tuition fees did not return. Ensuring good quality education is a priority for development of our economy and society, and increases the life chances for our children. Increases in the charges for third level students are much less than had been speculated as a result of us holding firm and we are pleased that the increased charges will apply to only one student in any family. I am very grateful for the very tenacious approach adopted by my parliamentary colleague, Deputy Gogarty, in defending education spending. He has remained largely unfazed by criticism in this regard and today can claim a good deal of credit.

See this speech in context