Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

In the midst of this crisis, the Government had a real opportunity to be brave and bold and to strike for real citizen-focused reform. What was said during the general election campaign was that one could not cut or tax one's way out of the crisis. We believed the parties that are now in Government. Some of us agreed with them. What is absent is the third way, namely, a stimulus. What we have gone for is an austerity model and a breakdown of tax and spend that is not fair. That was one of the things the Government aimed to do.

The proposals we see today display no vision but blunt cutting. There is no nuanced approach in terms of public services. I had hoped to see something in the document about that. It is very easy to cut overtime, for example, but such an approach can end up costing money, as we have seen on several occasions when agency nurses had to be employed due to inappropriate cuts. Reform must be managed and nuanced.

Some people who work in the public service earn too much. Some who have retired from the public service have pensions that are absolutely outrageous, but there are many people in the public service who earn below the average industrial wage. Let us start by not lumping everyone in together. I know gardaí, for example, who qualify for family income supplement. I know civil servants who cannot pay their mortgages. I also know public servants who are worried about how they will afford to put their children through college. We are all workers. This week I wish to see an end to the divide and conquer approach to workers.

I am in favour of public sector reform. I was in favour of it before the crash but achieving a citizen-centred public service delivered at an affordable cost must be central to our aim. They are two sides of the same coin. I do not see any vision in today's document or what has been said, apart from cuts. I accept that what is being talked about poses enormous difficulties. That has been outlined in the document, but there is no tackling of the problem and the Minister has not outlined how it will be done. Many of those who are opting for early retirement in the public service are doing so because they can see that the approach will not work. The reform will not be managed and we will see serious problems next year apart from the cuts that have been announced today.

Reference was made to the launch of the most ambitious programme of public sector reform. One could ask where it is. It is all about cuts. One cannot blame the people who work in the HSE for that dysfunctional organisation and how it was constructed. One cannot blame those who work in county councils for a system that was largely designed for a 19th century rural population. There is a real appetite for reform but the opportunity is not being seized. Instead of using the historical model whereby one looks at the past, we must properly plan for and predict the future. Many services are already lob-sided before we introduce cuts. Many services are also threadbare. For example, one's address can mean the difference in getting speech and language therapy services. One's address can affect the delivery of adequate Garda services. One's address can make the difference in terms of being accommodated following domestic abuse.

Those who run and use the services know they are threadbare. We are told that approximately 80% of education spending goes on salaries. One could ask why that is the case. It is because education has traditionally been under-funded. Capitation grants for schools have, traditionally, been inadequate. A cut of 2% on the capitation grant today is a tax on parents because they will be asked for more voluntary funds. They will be expected to organise cake sales, race nights and other fundraising activity. Schools will still need to be heated and services will still need to be provided. Savings for Government are being passed on as costs to others. For example, the €18.5 million that will be saved on third level education with the introduction of a €250 charge is an absolute betrayal. It is the kind of thing that brings politics into disrepute. The €12.6 million savings on postgraduate education will make a difference and prevent some people who should be in college who are bright and capable from being able to go. They will be at the heart of the recovery. We were told that there is a big difference between Ireland and Portugal. The difference is what we invested in education. Do we want to become like Portugal?

The saving of €34 million on local government funding that has been announced today is largely going to be covered by way of a charge which will be debated around the country in local authorities on budget day. It will result in a flat tax of €100. It is similar to the Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act 1983 when local authorities were at the coalface of collecting the charge. The Fine Gael and Labour parties were picking up and cleaning up after the Fianna Fáil Party after it got us into another mess. Such a flat charge is regressive. A person living in a two-bedroom apartment with a couple of children who is in negative equity and who is struggling to pay their bills will be asked to pay exactly the same as someone living in a six-bedroom house who does not have a mortgage.

The Labour Party maintained over many years that there is a need for tax justice. I agreed with that policy, but this is not tax justice; it is just a blunt charge that will make up the €34 million. We could have done things differently if we had a different model of local government. We could have three or four large regional authorities that are democratically elected to deliver everything from school buildings to child care services, strategic land use and transportation planning. There would be procurement opportunities, reduced transaction costs, and innovative use of technology. They could be underpinned by a district council model which would be where the citizen would interface. There is an appetite for radical reform, but it must be meaningful and it is not in the document.

In another part of the document there is a reference to fixyourstreet.ie. at the same time as local authority budgets are being cut to the bone in terms of repairing roads. That kind of thing is quite cynical and will be found out quickly.

On social protection and child benefit, the saving of €43 million is an attack on children. Rather than being about targeting savings, it is about going after larger families. On jobseeker's benefit, basing it on five rather than six days a week is a real cut for jobless people. One of the most cynical cuts of all is the €51 million saving from reducing the fuel allowance period from 32 to 26 weeks. The Government had choices, but the choice people often have is the choice between putting food on the table or turning on the heat. That is the choice they must make. The devil will be in the detail. The 2% efficiencies in the areas of disability, mental health and children's services will save €50 million. We know how threadbare those services are currently. Everyone in the Chamber knows. Those services are already down to the bone and a reduction of €50 million will make an enormous difference to people delivering those services.

In the midst of this relentless crisis, our focus must be to stop and ask ourselves what Ireland will look like in four year's time and what it will look like at the end of this Government's term. Will the austerity programme deliver jobs for people to the level needed? Will the health services be slashed and burnt, as appears to be happening now in terms of the cuts to smaller hospitals and to beds in acute hospitals? What will our education services be like? How many people will be denied the opportunity to go to college? People are just managing at the moment, but the cuts will make the difference.

There is a lack of vision in this document, which began by talking about vision. I want us to have a vision and want us to be enthusiastic about the kind of country we can create. However, I do not see that in this document. There was an opportunity to do so much more, but the wrong approach has been taken.

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