Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I appreciate the Minister of State remaining in the House. I have listened to his comments. He debates well and presents a good case but I contend that he is not dealing with the facts. He probably saw today's report in the Irish Independent entitled "Ireland's recession misery amongst worst in Europe":

http://www.independent.ie/topics/IrelandIreland's budget misery is the fourth worst in Europe, according to a new measurement devised by the credit ratings agency Moody's. The agency invented a "misery index" based on unemployment and inflation during the "stagflation" of the 1970s. In the present global crisis, Moody's has produced an index based on unemployment and budget deficits. Spain ranks worst, followed by Latvia, Lithuania and Ireland.

I invite Members to look at where we feature among the top OECD countries. I disagree with the response to our motion, which states the Government has "identified the right priorities and taken the right actions". The Government is selling young people out. They are being forced to choose between staying at home and living with their parents, and emigrating. Young graduates are not being given any incentive. Senators on this side of the House have said time and again that it is outrageous that no job stimulus is being provided. Young people are needed if we are to build a knowledge and innovation economy and to produce the competitiveness to which the Government refers. As things stand, they are looking at the boat. One third of those under the age of 25 - some 84,000 young people, including many graduates - are unemployed at the moment. If the Government is not looking at their needs, it does not have the right priorities.

Many public servants have been demoralised by this budget. Teachers have told me they were able to take the pay cuts, but they are not able to take the pension cuts. I seriously ask the Government to reconsider the pension cuts. Benchmarking has been well and truly rolled back by means of the pay cuts of 13.75% between last year and this year. While I agree that had to be done, I do not agree with the rolling back of the pension. I ask the Government to examine this aspect of the matter for the sake of the children. Morale is down in a serious way. As the parents of young children, the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, and I want our kids to benefit from high educational standards. We need good education outcomes to produce the graduates who will make Ireland a competitive nation. We are seriously undermining teachers right now. The Government is cutting the building programmes at a time when it is talking about getting people back to work. The primary programme has been cut by €306 million, or 27%, even though the primary school population is increasing. The secondary programme has been increased by 5%, but the third level programme has been cut by €140 million, or 30%.

I would have said more on this issue if I had been able to speak for ten minutes as I had expected. The Minister of State made a serious charge against Fine Gael's budget proposals when he said they are based on myths and are largely untrue. I invite him to discuss the proposals, which are fully costed, with our finance spokesman, Deputy Bruton, with whom I will certainly raise this issue. We do not put mythical documents in front of the people.