Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

I move:

That Seanad Éireann, in light of

the 10% fall in average house prices in 12 months;

the possibility that 100,000 young families will face negative equity by next year;

the halving of house-building activity and the uncertain future faced by 150,000 workers and apprentices in this industry;

the 45,000 increase in unemployment benefit claimants in the last 12 months;

the threat to public services from the €10 billion deterioration in the Exchequer balance since 2006;

the impact of high inflation on living standards and export competitiveness; and

the continued fall in consumer and investor confidence to record lows;

condemns the Government for:

squandering significant budget surpluses;

its failure to protect national competitiveness;

its failure to control inflation;

its failure to reform the public service;

and, in light of the deteriorating economic outlook, calls on the Government to:

look at further stamp duty measures to stabilise the housing market;

cut inflation to below the euro area average to help restore our national competitiveness and export growth;

adopt a leadership position in the vital national pay negotiations by foregoing the unwarranted ministerial pay increased approved by Government last year;

cut the period before which FÁS meets with new unemployment welfare claimants to find alternative employment or training opportunities from six to three months, in order to prevent a drift into long term-unemployment; and

cut the number of Government quangos, and abandon legislative plans to create new quangos, in order to safeguard diminishing Exchequer resources for essential front-line services.

I, too, congratulate the Minister of State on his recent appointment. I hope he serves that office well. He faces tough times ahead with regard to the economy, how the Government spends its money and what it does for the benefit of the people. The economy has changed dramatically in the 12 months since the general election. Everybody has spoken about the slow-down in the construction industry and its knock-on effects on the economy. House prices are falling, the number of people working in the construction industry has reduced dramatically and the tax take from the construction industry is down significantly. All this serves to show the weaknesses that existed in the economy due to Government policy prior to the boom.

Basically, the Government has squandered resources. It has failed to protect national competitiveness, control inflation and reform the public sector. The Government has no control over vast sections of the economy, many of which are working very well at present. It has no right to take credit for that because its role in that regard is incidental. However, the Government exercises huge control on some sections of the economy. In the last decade, spending in the health sector has increased by at least 75% and spending on education has increased by at least 50%. There have been improvements in some sections of the health and education sectors but other parts of those sectors are in a terrible state and probably worse than they were ten years ago.

It is clear how Government policy has affected those sectors. If one is a private patient who wishes to access medical treatment, one will wait between three days and three months to access most consultants in the private sector. The same consultants also work in the public sector but the wait to see a consultant in that sector is at least three months and can stretch to three years for some specialties, such as ear, nose and throat and orthopaedics. There have been a number of scandals in recent years with regard to nursing home care and last night's "Prime Time" television programme highlighted how children are put at risk. These scandals are happening in the health sector and are due to Government policy and its failure to reform that sector.

The "Prime Time" programme may have taken a one-sided view but if one has dealt with a person who is being abused, be it physical, sexual or emotional abuse, within the home or by strangers, one will know that the abuse has a lifelong impact on the individual. I am aware of its impact from my experience of working as a doctor. To see the HSE and, in some respects, the Government take an almost blasé approach to it means they have learned nothing from the institutional abuse that dominated the newspaper headlines for many years. It is obvious that the Government is aware of what is happening with regard to children at risk. There is a serious need to take control of the situation and to put the required funding in place.

With regard to the economy and how it affects the health sector, one must ask whether the Government knows where it is going with its policy on the health service. We are told there should be a small number of centres of excellence throughout the country to provide cancer services, yet the Government is giving huge tax breaks and policy support to the establishment of small hospitals dotted across the country that will duplicate the services these centres of excellence are intended to provide. That is where one sees resources being wasted. That might not have been too bad during the boom times, when the Government could afford itself the luxury of squandering our resources, but now it must make a decision.

Does the Government believe in the centres of excellence because they will improve patient care outcomes or are they to be a cost containment measure? Is the Government attempting to move health services into the private sector, regardless of where they are being provided? Some of the private hospitals being built that will provide radiotherapy services are far smaller than the public hospitals the Government is attempting to close. That can only lead to one conclusion, that Irish society is actively discriminating because of Fianna Fáil and Green Party policy. Their policy basically states that if one cannot afford private health insurance, one will be subject to serious discrimination.

The situation in the education sector is no different. There has been huge outcry about autism services. If one is seeking a public appointment for assessment of a child for autism, it will take up to 18 months to see the specialist. The same specialist can work in the private sector and can see the child within four to eight weeks but at substantial cost to the parents. However, once the assessment is carried out, the pupil can jump the queue for the provision of public services for autistic children. We are establishing a system of complete discrimination. That is the reason that probably every Member of the House has private health insurance. Perhaps some Members see nothing wrong with that but when the State is providing a service to the public, especially when one considers that this country is a republic, that type of behaviour is absolutely wrong.

A number of factors are at play in the way the Government is running the economy. There is active discrimination, squandering of resources and disjointed thinking in providing services. The examples from the health and education sectors show the Government has huge difficulty in understanding what it is doing. However, that is becoming very clear now that tax revenue is dramatically reduced. I have not even mentioned nursing home care, another pact promised by the Government, or the school refurbishment programmes which have now been cancelled. Those social services provided by the Government are clearly falling apart now that tax revenue is reduced.

The amendment to the motion commends the Government for its management of the economy, but that management is in serious disarray. If current projections are correct, this year's tax take will be less than last year's, which means that the 2008 budget will be the first in 30 years where the tax take has dropped year-on-year. If things continue this way over the next couple of years, the programme for Government will be short by approximately €30 billion in terms of fulfilling its objectives. That is a serious economic problem which would not prompt anyone to commend the Government for its management of the economy.

The Government amendment also "welcomes the Government's firm commitment to position the economy for sustainable development over the years ahead". That might be difficult, however. It is amazing that in a decade of unprecedented growth the Government has failed to connect any of our major cities by a continuous motorway. Neither the national nor non-national road infrastructure is up to scratch. What has happened with broadband is a disgrace and should have been dealt with years ago. Ministers talk about the research and development sector, including the concept of fourth level or high technology development, but they have failed to develop it in a way that people expected.

Not only has the Government failed in what it was supposed to do over the last decade, it has also failed to provide for the next decade when things will not be as good. The foundations that were laid during the past ten years, not just for social services but also for economic services, are extremely poor for a country that was doing so well. It did well not because of what the Government did, but because of what the people did. Many of those aged under 40 who have worked hardest will be ill served by the policies pursued by the Government in recent years.

The most amazing part of the Government's amendment "welcomes its renewed commitment to reform the public service". I would like to see a report from any Minister outlining what reforms have been undertaken in the past decade. I have seen little or no reform of any substance in that period that would impress the public. Our competitiveness has gone from first in the world to 17th, so there has certainly been no improvement in that regard. My fear is that the Government will make a bigger mess of it now since it has acted so disastrously in the last few years.

I ask the Minister of State to respond to our concerns by acknowledging the weaknesses. They are not caused by a foreign power or extraneous events, such as the credit crunch but by the manner in which the Government has run the country. We will return to this topic regularly.