Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Finneran. What could I possible say at this stage that will make a difference and will be heard? So much has been said. It is not all about what is being said this evening. We face a €4 billion hole that the Government will try to fill next Wednesday, 9 December. It is borrowing €500 million a week just to stay afloat but the problem as I see it is that we have lost confidence that the Government can keep us afloat even with this. Its lack of sustainable strategies has instilled fear in the entire nation and this has led to paralysis. Above all, the paralysis seems to be in the Government, with its lack of imagination to get us out of the mess it has brought us in to.

What are the Government's choices to find the €4 billion? That is the biggest issue. There is wide agreement that it cannot tax its way out of the recession. It is considering cuts to spending, some of which we support. We would particularly support cuts to waste. Only yesterday, I met a person with a small enterprise who has 13 people working for him. He is a supplier of goods to the HSE. He told me he faces other suppliers giving backhanders to people in the HSE. That is what he is up against to stay afloat. Clearly, there is no accountability or monitoring of systems. The buck must stop with the Government.

Cuts to services that affect the front line are not acceptable, namely, cuts to children's education, health care that people need or social work that could affect child protection. I am disappointed with the union leadership in this country. I do not blame the public servants, I blame the union leadership for its lack of a holistic vision of this problem and coherence. I blame the former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, for this. He turned the unions into the monsters we have today. The Government continues to give €1.5 million for activist training. Social partnership left out the small and medium enterprise sector. These are the people who created the jobs that paid the taxes to pay for public services.

We need to get this right. Today, we hear the unions want to ask public servants for 12 days unpaid leave. How will this be managed? The last thing one wants to hear - I am sure Senator MacSharry will agree - is that one's child's teacher is out. If a child's teacher is out for 12 days, that is the equivalent of one day every three weeks of the school year. Add sick and personal leave and the child's education will be seriously compromised. Are we getting as a quid pro quo the guarantee that the child will be taught by other teachers in the school? That certainly would increase pupil-teacher ratios. What would happen if four or five teachers were out at the same time? This could cause mayhem. I recall what it was like to go without substitute teachers when I started teaching in the mid-1980s. If one was genuinely out sick for a day, one dreaded coming back to hear about how one's children messed up other classes.

What about social workers and child protection services? We have learned about the Monageer case and the lack of out-of-hours mental health services. Last year I was told by social workers based in Galway that they had to leave 15 child protection cases unopened for up to two weeks because they were severely understaffed. Lives may be put at risk.

I blame the poor leadership given by union officials rather than public servants. We have done a serious disservice to public servants because they are widely regarded as an easy touch. I do not blame them for asking when their salaries will stop being cut. They have already seen levies of 7.5% introduced. It can be conclusively argued that benchmarking increases were wrongly given. Why not roll back on benchmarking entirely and leave it at that? Public servants would then know where they were going and their demonisation might end. I recently spoke to a 29 year old teacher who earns a salary of €29,000. He has already taken a 7.5% reduction through levies. Will he have to accept a further cut of 7%? His salary is not high, given the cost of living in this country. He has a house and a car but already rents some of his rooms to cover his mortgage repayments.

People want hope and leadership. This morning I visited the Ballyvaughan enterprise centre where I met unemployed people who spoke about their sense of isolation. Their feelings are shared by 420,000 people. With one in every three under the age of 25 years out of work, the level of youth unemployment is running dangerously high. In Galway city alone, 5,300 people under the age of 25 years are unemployed. The solution has to be the introduction of a jobs stimulus. I was stunned when Senator Walsh said the Government might consider such a stimulus if it had more money. Why not consider one? That is what separates Fianna Fáil from Fine Gael. My party believes we must offer hope. We cannot take from people, while giving nothing back. I do not know how many job policies have been presented. Our most recent pro-jobs policy involves the elimination of PRSI as part of a €900 million tax cuts package to create employment. Why not transfer some of the money provided in the social welfare budget to fund internship programmes? The Minister of State will be aware of how much Members of the Houses benefit from internships. Both employers and newly qualified graduates would benefit. Young people are in a catch-22 because they lack the experience to secure the few jobs available. By investing in job creation we would create the tax income needed to pay for public services.

I am one of the three people who started a job creation initiative in Oranmore, where I live, because we were fed up with the lack of leadership and solutions from the top. Every Friday at least three people approach me with ideas. We have established a panel of experts from people who are willing to donate their time for free. We have an information technology person to help us to build a website, a marketing expert who will help to market ideas and a former banker who never foreclosed on a mortgage in 40 years of work. We have every kind of expert needed to start up a business. This initiative is generating a wonderful level of excitement and hope but we can do much more in this regard.

There is unanimous agreement that the Government has made a mess of the economy but I am more interested in solutions than in apportioning blame. We need to educate ourselves out of the recession. Thanks to Finland's investment in teachers in the early 1990s, that country is much better able to cope with the current recession. Only 8% of Irish teachers have qualifications at masters level or above, whereas all Finnish teachers are qualified at least to that level. Finland is top in the programme for international student achievement in literacy, mathematics, science and problem solving. We need our graduates to perform at that level if we are to develop Ireland into a knowledge and innovation economy. Solutions are needed, not only today but also in four or five years' time. Our graduates will create and maintain the jobs needed to fund the Exchequer.

It is no longer acceptable to praise ourselves for our educational achievements. Our literacy problems are intergenerational in nature. Approximately 30% of children in disadvantaged areas leave primary school with low literacy levels. The equivalent figure is 10% in ordinary schools. One in six students drops out prior to completing the leaving certificate with no qualifications and no hope. Such students go on to become the parents of the future and the cycle continues when they pass on to their children their low literacy levels and disregard for education. We have to invest in education and cannot permit cuts to be made at the front line. We will lower standards if the Government agrees to the unions' proposal to force teachers to take 12 days unpaid leave. I will not accept such an outcome unless it can be proved that children will not be disadvantaged.

At tomorrow's meeting of the Joint Committee on Education and Science I will fight to ensure the registration fee for third level students is capped. They are already struggling and the current policy is simply aimed at introducing fees by the back door. This will be the acid test for the Green Party. Let us focus on education and growing the economy.