Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is clear the Government knows how to spend money, but that is not news. It is easy for one to spend money when it is available to one. Funds are available to the Government because the success of the economy means that people are paying more tax. The Government knows how to tax people — 50 stealth taxes have been introduced since the last election. The Government's failure to widen the tax bands routinely, in line with inflation, has made the public aware of its approach to taxing workers. The Appropriation Act 2006 does not clarify how the Government intends to get to grips with its pathological inability to tax fairly and spend wisely. The Government is patting itself on the back for its amazing ability to spend the money of hard-working families. I will explain to the House the real consequences of a decade of Fianna Fáil and Progressive Democrats rule.

Despite the Minister for Finance's attempt to move the goalposts, the recent budget confirms that Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats will not deliver on their core promise that 80% of earners will pay tax at the standard rate only. People who earn considerably less than average earnings will continue to pay tax at the same rate as multimillionaires. If one earns an extra €1,000, one will be clobbered with a 47% rate of tax, which is an indication of the Government's failure in this regard. The stamp duty code, which prevents young families from buying homes in established neighbourhoods, needs to be reformed but the Government has not done so. It has failed to end the practice of making families serial victims of its tax policies. It has done nothing to ease the burden of child care expenses. Severe tax penalties are imposed on parents who choose to care for their children at home.

The Government has not addressed the unfairness of the operation of many tax shelters, which allow people with substantial earnings to shelter huge amounts of money from tax. While there is no upper limit on what a person can shelter from tax, the Government gives low and middle income earners less than half the rate of tax relief on pension contributions. Many workers who are outside the tax net, which is to be welcomed, are unable to benefit from the contributions they make to pension funds. I have said consistently that the relationship between tax and pensions needs to be overhauled. I hope the Government will tackle this problem.

The Minister for Finance said that his budget was "a green budget", but he has failed to introduce significant reforms in the tax code to promote more sustainable patterns of development. He is belatedly waking up to the reality that many ordinary taxpayers are being ripped off because they are not getting the full value of the tax reliefs to which they are entitled. While Fine Gael welcomes the decision to make spending on nursing homes and trade union subscriptions deductible at source, the Minister's approach to the matter has been half-hearted. Rather than abolishing the meaningless restriction on health relief claims to cover expenses over €125 for a single person and €250 for a family, he has rationalised them into a single threshold of €125. The Minister, Deputy Cowen, is seeking to trip up taxpayers by preventing the introduction of a simple system whereby every medical expense would attract tax relief.

I remind Government Senators that the national development plan is not a gift from Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats to the people of Ireland. Every family in Ireland will pay €120,000, on average, in the coming years to fund it. Its worth hinges exclusively on the value for money and efficient delivery of the projects which are included in the plan. While there is no question about the ability of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats to spend this money, I doubt their capacity to deliver value from this spending for those stuck in traffic jams, waiting in accident and emergency departments or looking for affordable houses. The Government's record in such areas does not inspire confidence. Just over half of the roads programme, which will cost three times its original estimate, has been delivered.

The health strategy has almost collapsed with only a tiny fraction of the extra capacity delivered and no serious reform yet pushed through. Less than half the target for social and affordable housing was delivered, while the country suffered damaging urban sprawl. Our hospitals, our schools, our public transport system, our ports, are all crying out for coherent planning and delivery. However, it is disheartening to see so many projects recycled from the last plan and so many targets repeated. Do we have grounds for believing it will be any better next time? No Fianna Fáil or Progressive Democrats Minister was ever made responsible for the serious failures of the last national development plan. Getting it right this time depends on an honest appraisal of what went wrong last time but there is no evidence this has been done.

The new national development plan lists the achievements of its predecessor but fails to mention how far short of target they fell. There is no analysis of the under performances, why public private partnerships did not materialise, why reforms in the work vital to yield the potential from expensive infrastructure were not implemented. Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats have reviewed the period of the last NDP in a way that could only be described as selective and self-serving.

Fine Gael in Government will impose a new framework on the NDP designed to deliver value. We will publish the cost-benefit appraisals before committing taxpayers' money. We will establish an independent unit to audit evaluation work. We will implement a gateway system to ensure that projects have been robustly tested and that responsibility has been pinned. We will require regular public reports on the progress of projects and their status, be that red, amber or green.

The last NDP was an exercise in how not to plan. Numerous spending programmes in the last plan were not delivered on the scale initially promised. In the case of regional development the Government promised to spend €4.09 billion under the BMW regional programme but has spent only €2.48 billion, which is 61% of the total promised. The Government promised to spend €656 million on the e-commerce and communication measure but has spent only €100 million, which is 15% of the total promised. The Government promised to spend €446 million under the child care programme but by the end of 2005 it had spent only €273 million, which is 61% of the total.

The Government promised to spend €1.2 billion on the back to education initiative but will spend only €600 million, which is 51% of the total promised. In the case of health, the Government promised to spend €1.3 billion on non-acute and continuing care but has spent only €844 million, which is 65% of the total promised. In the case of water, only 35% of resources allocated under the management and rehabilitation initiative, including the water conservation programme, were drawn down. Rural water investment was also under-funded with only 54% of the original target realised.

It is timely to reflect on the Government's overall record on spending. In the case of inter-urban routes, the last NDP proposed to upgrade the five major inter-urban routes to motorway or dual carriageway standard. Initially costed at €5.6 billion, they are now expected to exceed €16 billion and were only 50% completed by the end of last year. The original scheme for Luas was for a single continuous line from Dundrum to Tallaght, through the city centre. The project was costed in 1996 for €279 million, but the final cost was €750 million. Its target completion date was 2000; it was not completed until 2004. Do I need to remind Members of all these? The Dublin Port tunnel was originally estimated to cost €222 million in 1999. The contract awarded in 2000 was for €449 million but the final cost is expected to top €1 billion. Is the Minister of State hanging his head in shame or does he regard it as a joke?