John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I wondered whether the Minister might have been referring to his predecessor.

I welcome the Minister to the House and am glad of the opportunity to have a discussion on the publication of the Book of Estimates. Contrary to the Minister's statements, his Estimates do not reveal any genuine reform of the process in its entirety. Given that this has been his first full year in this office, I had thought we might witness a new departure from him, as well as genuine visible signs of the Government's new-found commitment to receiving value for money. The Minister mentioned 19 road projects under way at present which are on time and under budget and claimed that this gives the lie to the proposition that the Government cannot produce value for money for taxpayers. The Minister should repeat this claim on their completion. Only then would he be able to give the lie to the widely and correctly held view that the Government wastes scandalous amounts of public money on infrastructural projects and other general spending issues.

During the last number of months, there have been a number of different disclosures, particularly relating to the Department of Health and Children. The Minister is at great pains to emphasise, here and elsewhere, the increases in expenditure within the Department of Health and Children authorised by the Government since 1997. In the intervening period, contrary to the picture which the Government would like to paint, it is clear that the service provided has become worse. A threefold increase in expenditure coinciding with delivery of a worse service clearly indicates an abject failure on the part of the Government, of successive Ministers for Health and Children, including the current Minister for Finance, and his predecessor. In this regard the Minister has nothing to crow about in this House or any other venue.

During the past couple of years, the Government has proclaimed a number of key priorities with respect to the finance portfolio. The Minister referred to the numbers employed in the public service. A guideline was issued to the effect that numbers would be reduced by approximately 5,000. The cumulative increase in the last couple of years is over 14,000. Nobody argues with the need for increased front line staff. I support the Minister's additional funding to increase the number of primary teachers and his call for increased numbers of frontline healthcare workers. However, I cannot stand over further inflating the numbers of non-frontline staff in the public service and I cannot see how the Minister can stand over it. In certain parts of the public service those numbers continue to increase.

While the Government has committed to keeping current expenditure increases in line with nominal GNP, this has not happened over the last couple of years or in this Book of Estimates. On budget day the Minister will announce additional increases and other measures. I take issue with a number of categories of funding. The Minister reaffirmed the Government's broken promise about the 2,000 extra gardaí and contradicted himself. Given the figures that have been announced, the 2,000 gardaí cannot and will not be provided.