John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

However, the doubling of the tax take cannot be explained. The reason that figure has changed so much is because new charges and taxes have been introduced that do not immediately come to public attention. One of those is the increase in VAT, which happened a couple of years ago. We have much more income coming into the coffers, but where are we getting the value for money? We are all familiar with the health service and the disaster that exists therein. The new Minister for Health and Children is not really a new Minister as she has been in Cabinet for seven years and she shares an element of collective responsibility for what has gone on before. However, I am prepared to wait and see if she has new ideas and I hope that she does.

In the seven years of this Government, the chance of someone of my age buying a house has completely disappeared. The Government has not only just stood by, it has also imposed extra charges on people who want to buy their own home. It increased VAT by 1%, which had a knock-on effect on everything, including houses. It got rid of the first-time buyer's grant and we now have development charges emerging. In some cases that may be even more than €10,000, while in other cases it is a €10,000 change in the affordability of houses for people who are trying to provide for themselves. The Government is directly responsible for this and it is doing nothing to resolve it.

We are also familiar with the idea of rip-off Ireland. This morning, Senator Leyden tried to adopt the approach that we should stick our heads in the sand and say nothing about it, and then it might not exist. The fact is that it does exist and the Government has a responsibility to act to get rid of rip-off Ireland. Recent Exchequer figures show that the average tax contribution per household looks set to increase in 2004 by €2,800. The cost of living in Ireland is by far the highest in the EU. An average basket of food that costs €100 in Ireland, costs the equivalent of €82 in the UK. Between 2001 and 2002, Ireland overtook the UK and Sweden to become the third most expensive country in the EU for consumer goods and services. By 2003, Ireland was almost on a par with Finland as the most expensive country in the euro zone. We are all familiar with the fact that Dublin has become very expensive and it is now the fourth most expensive capital in the EU.

I have already spoken about the erosion of competitiveness and the drop from fourth to 13th place in the global competitive league compiled by the World Economic Forum. We had this discussion in the House earlier and I do not want to repeat the figures mentioned.