Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Correct.

We were promised an inspiring drama, but today turned into a pantomime, although there was little humour over the past two days. Many people see the farce that the spring statement has become. For months, the Government, the spin doctors and the boys and girls in the corridors have been briefing the media on the plans for the forthcoming budget ahead of the next general election. The spring statement was an overhyped and excitable opportunity for the Government, its spin doctors and all of those people in the corridors of power to slap themselves on the back for what they believed was a good job of work.

A mini-budget is an announcement of good measures and a glimpse of the future, the promised land according to the Minister, who projected that we were on the edge of something wonderful. "Why change now?" is the argument. To be honest, it is a disappointing one. Yesterday, we witnessed two finance Ministers seeking to compete with each other's banality. The bland leading the bland. Families and individuals living on the margins of society, struggling on low incomes and working to pay their bills only to be left broke at the end of the week see nothing in the announcements. Those living in fear of their houses being ripped off them by financial institutions have been left no hope by the announcements. There has been an abandonment of commitments. Why would the Opposition or the country have any faith in commitments given by the Government parties ahead of the forthcoming general election?

The spring statement approach was not invented by this Government. It is not an ironic name for a new hope or dawn. Rather, it was born out of an initiative in the UK where flagging polls within the Tory Party resulted in a spring statement. We are witnessing the same sorts of spin and rhetoric and are being treated to government by announcement. That is all that is happening - announcements of large figures - yet the public is being asked to believe that these measures are realistic and that the Ministers' thoughts, hopes and aspirations are honest. They are not honest and they will not be honoured over the course of the next number of years.

Announcements on commitments in the programme for Government are rarely followed through. They are just Fine Gael, in coalition, having a spasm of conscience on major issues. We heard tonight that there was no alternative to the current Government. That is untrue. On 25 January, the Tánaiste announced through the Sunday Independentthat we were going to have a wage-led recovery. On 4 February through The Irish Times, that was torpedoed by the boss in government, Fine Gael, which clearly stated that a living wage would have to be a voluntary initiative within the economy. This essentially meant that workers could go and swing and take whatever they could get from their employers. What we are hearing from the Government is that workers are just lucky to have jobs. This has been the consistent undertone of the past four years. In that time, the single largest economic concession given by the minor partner in government was inaction on the conditions of workers.

Government backbenchers wander around like stunned chickens wondering why their support among the public is decreasing. The reason is that they have roundly abused their position in public office by giving false hope and empty promises and having a stunning lack of concern for those who are struggling.

Social Justice Ireland described the spring statement as being unfair, disappointing, contradictory and lacking in vision, commitment and social justice. Social Justice Ireland made a pertinent point: in four regressive budgets, Fine Gael and its near-irrelevant tail applied a ratio of 2:1 in their application of austerity. In the recovery, why are we not seeking to reverse this and make it 50:50 instead of splitting an available resource on an unfair pro ratabasis in line with the Government's composition? We know why - public services will be sacrificed to try to win the next election using tax cuts. It is as simple as that. Many involved in providing public services see that some of the increase in spending will focus on reversing cuts, the horrific attacks of recent years, in public sector workers' pay. I will not begrudge a low-paid public servant a pay restoration. Public servants have endured a significantly difficult time in recent years, but should we increase higher paid workers' pay at the cost of not recruiting for critical services such as early intervention teams? The waiting list for mental health services increases every year, yet high-paid civil servants will see their pay restored as a consequence of an electoral cycle. This is unfair.

Some 20,000 children are waiting for speech and language therapy. Thousands have been waiting for years. Their futures are being sacrificed for tax cuts and pay increases. This is horrific. Those children will have to wait for the electoral cycle to provide an opportunity for the Government to buy their votes. The mental health sector was promised reform in the form of community mental health teams, but this commitment has never been delivered over the course of the programme for Government. Instead, we have seen cuts in mental health services and staffing. Under HSE service plans, the money to recruit staff for critical posts was buried in the following year's finances. It is difficult to get clarity in the House about what is happening with the ring-fenced funding for mental health services. For example, spending on recruitment for teams was deliberately delayed because of a lack of political will to recruit for the most vulnerable. In the past two years, funding for mental health services was underspent by €70 million, 10% of their €700 million budget. Political honesty and will have lapsed in the Government. The long waiting lists for treatment are the consequence of Fine Gael and Labour's type of austerity.

Last October, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, proclaimed that it was the end of austerity, but that budget was a disaster because it required reaffirmation of the budgetary situation in the spring statement. Where has the austerity ended and for whom? Has it ended for the family in Cork, the two adults and three children who slept in a car last night because they had no home? Has it finished for the 1,000 children who are sleeping in hotel rooms in Dublin tonight? Has it ended for lone parents who are now bracing themselves for the most odious of cuts in their living standards, something about which the Tánaiste should be acutely aware?

The Government - Fine Gael and its tail - has withdrawn from the threshold of decency in society. It has failed to recognise that the public is cynical about this statement or any commitment or promise from it concerning the country's future.

The attitude of the Government has been appalling, particularly towards those people who are struggling within society, those dependent on public services, people on waiting lists who do not have the insulation of private health insurance, children awaiting an appointment with an early intervention team and children striving to overcome a disability. The State has turned its back on all of them. The reality is that austerity has not quit for people in those circumstances.

The type of growth this country requires is growth that rewards people, sees investment in public services, protects the most vulnerable, and ensures a fair and equal distribution of wealth across society. The mission statement set out in the document that was launched yesterday does not offer that prospect to the people of this country. We need to see a vision that people can cherish and which will not leave anybody behind. Unfortunately, every budget this Government has introduced was intended to leave people behind.

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