John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I agree with what Senator White said at the end of her contribution and I echo her sentiments. I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on the Estimates in the run-up to the budget, which will take place next week. I am also delighted that the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, seems to have come around to the idea of fiscal rectitude. We are all talking about how he is wielding his axe. "Fiscal rectitude" is a terrible term, which conjures up all sorts of images.

The question I have was eloquently outlined by the Minister of State when he spoke about Government spending increases over the past two years and how, in 2001, it ran to 21% and had been 15% the previous years. Where was the Minister for Finance's axe at that time? Why did he let things get so badly out of hand that we now find ourselves in our current position?

While I do not know if this figure is correct, it has been brought to my attention that current spending by the Government, including the sums proposed in the Estimates, has increased by 58% over what was spent in 2000. While that seems like an astronomical increase, I have not had time to examine it. It is clear that despite how the Minister for Finance might pontificate, fiscal rectitude has not been particularly high on his list of priorities in recent years.

Other Members referred to aspects of the Estimates that will either lead to increased charges or reduced services. I am concerned about local government. For the second year in a row, the local government fund will remain more or less frozen. As a member of a local authority, the Acting Chairman, Senator Leyden, will be aware of the serious effect this will have. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government tells us almost daily about the need to introduce large development levies. His logic is that developers are making huge sums of money and some money must be taken from them. While that is laudable, surely he does not expect developers not to pass on this increase in its entirety to ordinary house buyers. People in Kilkenny are faced with the possibility of development charges of slightly more than €5,000 for once-off rural houses with no connection to anything. While this has been proposed under the current draft scheme, it has not been accepted.