Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the budget. It is the first in at least five years, since we have been in office, that is positive news for all of our citizens, particularly for the most disadvantaged and those who have suffered most. I acknowledge the pain and suffering inflicted on the country because of the previous Government's economic policies. There was the near collapse of our entire banking system and almost 300,000 people out of work. All of that has been reversed now due to Government policies and particularly due to the sustained support of those who had to bear the brunt of tax increases and reductions in living standards over many years.

In chemistry, when one is titrating two liquids, there is a titration point, an absolute change, which is called the end point of the titration. It means things have changed utterly. This budget is the point at which things have changed utterly for our people. After all of the extremely serious, difficult situations experienced by tens of thousands of our citizens, they can now look forward to hope for the future.

There is hope and progress. There are significant changes being made; although they are not all the changes we would like to see, nevertheless they are very important. People want the future to be secure, particularly for our young people. They hope that our children are going to bigger and better schools and that there are more teachers. We will be increasing the supply of teachers in our schools by in excess of 2,250 in this budget. That is positive news for all of our schools.

The increase in child benefit of €5 per week is hugely important and it recognises the increasing needs of those children and the fact that families will be supported in supporting and looking after them.

I come from County Louth where, tragically, one of our own gardaí was murdered most foully and most cruelly this week. The Government is creating 600 new garda training places. That will make a significant difference to the Garda complement up and down the country. Clearly, it is something that will continue as the years go on.

Notwithstanding the criticisms people make, the increase of €3 per week for our senior citizens along with the increase in the fuel allowance of €2.50 per week makes a significant improvement to their standards of living.

Housing is a huge issue. Of all the people who come to my office, housing is of the greatest need. I welcome what the Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, has announced. We need to go further and do a lot more. We should be able to tackle some of the greedy exploiting landlords who are putting people out on the street. This very week in my constituency a landlord is threatening a woman with four young children, the youngest of whom is two months old, that he would go into their house after his 56 days notice on the Friday and put them out. They had nowhere to go and could not get other accommodation. We need to increase the legal notice which landlords are obliged to give before they cease a tenancy.

I welcome the building programme. It needs to go further and we need to make the changes which are under discussion and have not yet been announced.

I welcome the increase in caring for our elderly and the increase in the fair deal scheme. I would like to see a very significant increase in home help provision. The key thing is not to have people going into nursing homes if we can keep them out. We should support them in their homes, increase home help and give families rest and respite. We should give them the opportunity to live in their homes for as long as possible and sustain people in their natural environment where they have lived all of their lives. That is a significant issue which no doubt will be addressed shortly.

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