Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

There is no doubt that yesterday's budget was a tough budget and that everyone in the country will feel the brunt of it. However, at 7.30 this morning in minus 5°, as my team and I stood outside the DART station in Dún Laoghaire, giving out information leaflets about the budget, I was struck by the hundreds of people who were going about their daily lives, going to work and education and getting on with things. They are the people who will help to lift this country. By their commitment to themselves, their work, their families and their children they will ensure that the country will turn around, the economy will be lifted and the opportunities that some of the rest of us have got will be there for them as well.

It did not matter that it was cold and dark; they wanted to take the information to plan their future and to find out how to adapt their living circumstances for their families. It was very much with a sense of, "I am getting on with my job, now you get on with your job." I fully appreciate the work they do but sometimes we forget about the 1.8 million people who are working and we forget about the 1 million people in education. They are getting a top quality education and the qualifications to enable them to have a future here. It is to help to protect those people that the Government has introduced this budget which, undoubtedly, is difficult. There is no easy way to take €6 billion out of the economy. The only way to do this is to take it from each of the different sections and Departments. It is with a heavy heart that one cuts social welfare payments. Nobody wants to do that. However, in balancing the different elements, one realises that even though it was necessary to cut the carer's allowance, the two elements the carers fought really hard to keep, the respite care grant and the half-rate carer's allowance, were preserved. Increased funding has been put into disability services this year. This measure was not announced in the House yesterday because it was not possible to announce all measures in the time allotted. Additional funding has gone into the home help packages. If money is not taken out of payments, it would have to be taken out of the services. People who require a great deal of support and health care prefer to have access to the services and the professional health care services than to be given a payment, although I accept it is difficult to have the payment taken away.

The same is true for people who are working and will now pay more taxes. The fact that the tax is being front-loaded for this the first year of the four year plan at least will give people some hope as regards knowing what they will have to pay not only next year but that a further burden not of the same degree will be placed upon them for the future years.

I will speak about areas within my Department's remit. For many weeks some people have argued that funding to the arts and sport should be reduced but the Government appreciates the value of those areas as much as it does tourism, the other element of my Department. Each of the three areas has a value in society and each of them has become crucial for Irish communities, small and large. Each of them is very valuable for the economic contribution they make to the country. The cuts in my Department reflect the value we place on each of those areas. The tourism marketing budget has effectively been kept but with a small reduction. However, this reduction does not affect the core marketing activities of Tourism Ireland or Fáilte Ireland. This means we can attract extra visitors to this country and with a particular focus on the convention centre, on business and on golf and activity holidays. We hope to market the country in new and imaginative ways in partnership with the airlines, ferry operators and tour operators who are all very enthusiastic. They have welcomed the package of measures introduced for the tourism industry in the budget, not least of which was the reduction in the air tax to €3 and the additional incentive offered by the Dublin Airport Authority. I have had meetings with the airlines and with the tourism industry at which everyone raised the issue of the air tax. It is hoped to see a positive response to this reduction from the airlines by way of their proposals to carry more people into the country. This could have a beneficial effect. A significant budget has been allocated for tourism along with the new facilities and investment in capital infrastructure. I am quite satisfied that we will meet our targets for next year which by 2014 would lead to 8 million tourists coming to the country and supporting an additional 15,000 jobs in an industry which already supports 190,000 people working all over Ireland.

The allocation of almost €150 million for the culture sector shows a real commitment to arts and culture in our society. The day-to-day expenditure for the arts is down just 3.8%. Organisations around the country were very concerned that their value would not be appreciated and that their funding would be slashed but this has not happened. This is because the Government recognises that people in this area are already working for very little and they make a significant contribution to national culture and creativity. They help give young people other outlets for their energies and their desire to participate. The funding for the Arts Council will help to support 50 different venues around the country, 200 festivals and 400 arts organisations. I welcome the fact that recent research has shown that 2.3 million adults here participate or attend arts events, theatre, art galleries, classical music performances, opera, dance performance, and so on. This illustrates the vibrancy of a sector which is well worth supporting as the Government has done in this budget.

I refer to two other areas which were not mentioned yesterday but which require to be recognised. The artist exemption is a tax relief that could have been abolished along with so many others. However, because of the value we place on our artists, writers, sculptors, photographers, and so on, we have kept the artist exemption but reduced it to €40,000. That sum covers almost 80% of the artists in the country who will continue to benefit. The first €40,000 earned is completely exempt from tax. This was a very important statement about how Ireland regards the cultural sector. The second tax relief was one which could have been abolished, the section 481 investment for film and television productions. This will remain because of the value for employment and its effect on the number of film productions being attracted into Ireland which in turn sends out a positive message about the country. We are providing funding for our cultural institutions and for initiatives next year such as Dublin Contemporary and for the expansion of Culture Night throughout the country and Culture Ireland and Imagine Ireland in the United States for which specific funding will be made available to showcase Irish artists.

The area within my Department's remit is sport. It is very easy to suggest slashing funding to sport but sport plays an increasingly important role in communities where people have more time on their hands than they would like to have. It has also seen a resurgence in volunteerism in communities. We continue to support sport through the Irish Sports Council, the swimming pool programme and the sports capital programme. We continue to support the volunteers, the clubs and the major sporting organisations. This Government genuinely values all aspects of Irish society and despite the tough budget and the difficult decisions that had to be made, it tried to make it as fair and as balanced as possible without losing sight of our national values.

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