Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

It surely is, but they might not appreciate it. These people get into their cars at 6.30 a.m., drop their children to a crèche, collect them at 7.00 p.m., and put them straight to bed. There are many downsides to this way of life. We have failed to plan in this area.

It must be asked if this very significant increase in spending is sustainable on a long-term basis. We have economic cycles, such as recession and growth, that occur all the time. What happens when the economy starts to slow down? We are increasing health spending this year by €1 billion, but what happens when things go wrong? In England, the Minister's counterpart, Mr. Gordon Brown, has called a halt and stated that he cannot continue throwing money at the NHS without seeing a consequent improvement in service.

The Minister spoke highly of the National Treatment Purchase Fund, but Deputy McManus exposed that for the fraud it is. Patients who are waiting over a certain period of time are entitled to treatment and nobody has a problem with that. However, it was farcical to see them being treated in the same hospital where they were waiting. Why was the hospital not given the extra funding in the first place? The patient would then have been facilitated.

I am becoming increasingly concerned at the creeping privatisation of the health service. I welcome the involvement of the private sector in the health service, but the State must have a major role in the provision of health resources. The obvious answer is that the State should provide more funding to hospitals and we would then not need the National Treatment Purchase Fund. Patients would be seen on time and in their own area. I know of one lady in Carlow who had to go to Galway to get a knee operation. She could have had it done near her locality and the distance involved has put much strain on her family. Are the taxpayers getting value for money in such cases?

How many new GP-only medical cards have been issued at this stage? I understand that only a tiny percentage of those promised have been delivered. That was not mentioned in the Minister's speech. What about the pupil-teacher ratio? We hear about ratios of 17 children to one teacher, which bemuses me. When the pupil-teacher ratio is being worked out, walking principles are taken into account, which is very disingenuous. We should be honest and set maximum class sizes. There are many classes with significantly more than 30 pupils in them. That has a huge impact on children later on.

It costs more than €250,000 to keep one prisoner for one year. If we spent one tenth of that on better school resources, people might not end up in prison in the first place. There is a clear link between educational disadvantage and ending up in prison. The Minister might be convinced that the pupil-teacher ratio is low, but that is not the case on the ground. We should set maximum class sizes and teachers should not be in classes with 30 to 35 pupils, where children do not get the level of attention they deserve. While I welcome the extra resources devoted to education, most parents and teachers want smaller class sizes.

I was quite happy with the Social Welfare Bill 2005, but I would like to make a suggestion about the free fuel allowance. Some people get a delivery of oil in October. The free fuel allowance is currently paid weekly, which is of little use to people who have to pay up to €400 in October. It might be possible to change the scheme to allow people to get a six month cheque rather than a weekly cheque, which would enable them to buy the fuel in bulk. That was suggested to me by a community welfare officer and it makes sense.

The Transport 21 presentation did not go according to plan for the Government. The media and the public were very cautious about it. It seemed to be a re-launching of an old package. The Government had a major challenge in delivering on time and on budget for all the major transport projects. I recently had the honour of travelling to the Minister's constituency. The road from Clara to Roscommon must be the worst in the country. Leaving Dublin for the west, people can see little benefit for their area from Transport 21. We should not ignore the need for local authorities to put in outer relief roads in towns rather than inner relief roads because the former can be far more effective than motorways. Unfortunately, the normal response when one seeks funding to open up land for such roadways is that the motorway must take precedence. While Carlow is shortly to get a motorway, there is, nonetheless, a great need in this rapidly growing town for other minor roads. We should not be just looking to motorways to resolve these difficulties.

The Minister neglected to mention PPARS when he referred to the management of ICT projects and consultancies and I can understand why. This symbolises the Government's failure to take control of an issue. A system has been installed costing €150 million which has not delivered or produced the required results. It can only cater for a fraction of the total staff. The Government was very slow to identify the problem. Even when my colleagues asked about it last July, it took until October before action was taken. While the project has been suspended we are still not sure whether the problem is resolved. Some Ministers talk about it being a great success. The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Noel Dempsey, thought that €150 million was only a drop in the ocean. If he is that generous with his money, I should not mind singing carols at his house next Christmas. Perhaps he will show a different type of generosity than he does with taxpayers' money, however.

I will conclude by conceding that much progress has been made. However, I can give two examples to the contrary involving friends who live in Dublin. One, in Castleknock, cannot get on the train in the morning which takes a few minutes to get to the city centre, because there is no space on it — unless she wants to start the day like a sardine and arrive in a bad temper. That is not just my version of events. I have heard Senator Morrissey raise this in the House as well. Another friend of mine took a full hour to get from Lucan to the city centre last night on a bus. The public is not getting the service it should.

Finally, the Minister might take up an issue which has not been handled well by his Minister of State. This concerns the Lacken Weir in Kilkenny, where the main drainage works have cost €40 million more than initially planned. I accept that they are working well, but there is a small problem in that the salmon have difficulty in getting up to the weir.