Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I will share my time with Deputies John Browne and Timmy Dooley. I welcome the Minister of State's announcement of the reintroduction of the sports capital programme. I know he has fought hard to achieve that and I look forward to fairness in its dispersal. I am sure he will not keep it all in Westport.

In the past two days, we have been asked by the Government to measure the budget in terms of jobs, reform and fairness. In any discussion about a budget at this time of year, it is appropriate that we recall the memory of our late colleague, Brian Lenihan. It is hard to believe that it was only one year ago that he delivered the last budget and that he is no longer with us. Much of the trumpeting from the current Government about the progress achieved by this country was achieved because of the work of Brian Lenihan.

On reform, I welcome the new format and have found the two-day exercise interesting. It has given people a chance to look at the issues in more detail than previously, rather than having to look at a tsunami of information. My political self must compliment Fine Gael on the manner in which it dispatched the delivery of the bad news to its colleagues in the Labour Party. As a result, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, had relatively few announcements of bad news to make in his presentation. He managed to be the good cop in the good cop, bad cop routine. Was that by design? If so, c'est la vie.

However, where the reform has fallen down is the manner in which the run-in to the budget was conducted. The manner in which specific measures were leaked was disgraceful. It was as if when Ministers lost battles around the Cabinet table, they then decided to take to the airwaves and newspapers to try to win their battle in public. The difficulty with that is that when they throw a measure out there that affects somebody's payments, accommodation such as nursing home accommodation, or other areas, they scare people. The people are not in a good place now and do not need that. I suggest that next year Ministers should fight their fight at the Cabinet table and not go running to the newspapers.

On Monday, the Minister of State, Deputy Kelly, and I were out in RTE trying to give our reaction to the budget and it struck me that we still have the system where Ministers brief the media. I know Fianna Fáil Ministers did the same, but I do not defend that. What would have been worthwhile in terms of Dáil reform would have been for the Minister to give his speech and then for the relevant committees to meet to be briefed by the Ministers. That would have put the Oireachtas at the centre of the budgetary process and perhaps it is a suggestion that will be taken up next year. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, is open to change and perhaps next year he will come in earlier in the morning and give his speech and then allow the various Ministers appear before the relevant committees to allow Members the opportunity to quiz them. There is significant detail in the Budget Statement and it would have been far better to follow that procedure rather than wait until the committees meet in January, February and March, long after the crime scene is closed and it is too late to do anything. I suggest the Government should consider this proposal for next year.

On jobs, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, had some good news to announce yesterday. The reduction of stamp duty on commercial properties is welcome. I also welcome the relaunch of the labour market activation scheme. This scheme has achieved significant good and while a €20 million investment is small, it can be targeted and is measurable. The incentive for companies exporting into the BRIC countries is particularly welcome as this is an area we need to open up to. I reserve comment on the credit insurance scheme which has been announced on a number of occasions but the detail of which or the proposed budget for which we still have not seen. Traditionally, the Department of Finance has vigorously opposed this scheme, so I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Bruton, on finally getting it through the Department. However, I will not comment further until we see the specific details of it.

We must also look at the flip side of the budget. Up until last week, Ministers were promising there would be action on the upward-only rent issue. One Minister, in a meeting with Retail Excellence Ireland this day last week, told them action was imminent and that he was getting very frustrated with his colleague, the Minister for Justice and Equality, for not bringing it forward quickly enough. However, it has been clear for some months that there is a difficulty. In fact, it was always clear. In the run-in to the election, the parties now in Government were told by the former Minister, Dermot Ahern, that there was a constitutional block in connection with the issue, yet they insisted on making specific promises on the issue. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, put it out yesterday that it will not happen because of the constitutional problem. That is unfair. The manner in which people were led up the garden path is unfair. This evening, one Minister more or less acknowledged that in the nine months since the Government took office, there have been huge delays in concluding deals and that there has been a serious blockage in terms of moving commercial property because people did not know where they stood on this as the Government tried to make up its mind. At least that is solved now. However, the Government has completely burned its promises on the rent issue - remember the big banners in Grafton Street and the various endorsements from retail organisations - which is not good, particularly when the advice was available on the issue.

I do not understand why the Government has hit redundancy rebates so savagely, from 60% to 15%. The Minister of State, Deputy Kelly, is a Labour Party man and he may shake his head and speak about TalkTalk. He is right that big companies should not get those rebates. However, the small man in Nenagh is not TalkTalk or Dell. He has a right to get some sort of protection. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, pointed out that Sweden and other countries do not have these provisions. The United Kingdom does have this provision. The reduction is so big and to make it in just one night is just not fair on business. These business people are the ones we expect to create jobs. We could make similar comments with regard to the VAT increase of 2%. I know the Minister is committed to changing the VAT rate, but 2% in one go is too much. The Minister, Deputy Noonan, made a comment yesterday, which he got away with, that it was not a €500 cost on every house because business would pay for it.

These business people are the people we expect to create the jobs we need, yet we expect them to pay the 2% VAT increase and to take a huge hit on the redundancy rebate without them getting any real relief on rent if they are stuck in a lease. They also face reductions in the reliefs for pension contributions. I do not doubt at all that members of the Government want to create jobs, but the rhetoric and commitment do not match the reality of the measures taken in this budget. We must join the two in some way so that what they talk about is helpful and delivers.

The Minister commented yesterday that it was very difficult to put job targets beside initiatives. He is dead right; it is. I am glad some Ministers have had the guts to say we cannot do it anymore, but they were doing it up to a few weeks ago, saying we would create a certain number of jobs through this initiative. If we are to have a discussion on job creation in the next while, that is good.

The budget fails the test of fairness in so many areas - one would need nearly a week to go through it. It is welcome that the Government is rolling back on the decision on disability benefit. I do not know how it got through a Cabinet with so-called socialist Ministers sitting around the table. One would have expected it from the Progressive Democrats, but even they had a bit of a conscience and would never have done this. Again, it is welcome that it is being reviewed and the measure will not be included in the social welfare Bill.

I particularly welcome the ringfencing of funding in regard to A Vision for Change. Aside from the economy, mental health presents our biggest challenge. The resources of the political establishment were mobilised in the mid-1990s to resolve the Northern Ireland issue. We need to do the same in regard to mental health, on which we need to open a discussion. I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, and the former Minister of State, John Moloney, who really led the way on this issue. When one sees a target in the health Estimate to achieve a saving of €50 million through additional efficiency measures in the mental health as well as various other sectors, one is a little scared about what will happen to organisations working in that area. Efficiency measures are Sir Humphrey-speak for the closing of services, the closure of beds and the withdrawal of funding. There are no details included, which is the difficulty. There is reference to efficiency and procurement measures in every Department with big figures included. However, no details have been provided. This makes me wonder about whether the figures will add up or whether we will be back sometime next year with Supplementary Estimates coming through like trains on tracks or, God forbid, an entire new budget because there are so many fluffy headings.

The fuel allowance will only be payable for 26 weeks and is in addition to the cut in the number of units made so slyly earlier in the year. The massive increase in the number of contributions required to receive widow's or widower's pension from 156 weeks to 520 is not fair.

The Minister of State, Deputy Alan Kelly, and I discussed the following issue on television the other day, but the Department of Education and Skills has confirmed my fears. Using Sir Humphrey-speak again, it stated there would be phased adjustments from 2012 to 2013 to staffing schedules in one, two, three and four teacher primary schools by raising the minimum number of pupils required for the allocation of teaching posts. The Minister of State said this did not relate to mainstream teaching posts but to resource teacher posts which are still important. However, on Monday night the Department stated it did and that schools should perhaps be asked to consider their future. One sees this thrown in with the career guidance provision changes. The Government is running around telling us there will be no change to the pupil-teacher ratio, but schools will lose 800 positions owing to the changes to the career guidance provision. A saving of €76 million in one year will result from all these measures. That is serious and means the pupil-teacher ratio will increase and marks the beginning of an attack on rural schools, which is not fair.

The registration fee has been beaten to death in the past 48 hours. Four days before the general election the Minister for Education and Skills signed a pledge, yet when he got into government, he did the exact opposite. The maintenance grant has been cut by 2%, with further cuts planned next year. The budget attacks students and the third level sector generally and has failed in terms of job creation and fairness.

The Minister of State, Deputy Ring, rightly acknowledged all the progress made in tourism. I pay tribute to all those involved, including the staff of Tourism Ireland in North America. There was a fantastic announcement, with which the Minister of State was involved, on Ryanair and Knock Airport. We have superb staff working in the tourism and job promotion agencies, as well as in Bord Bia, who are selling Ireland across the world.

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