Michael D'Arcy (Fine Gael)

It is easy to increase benefits and decrease taxes. It is not so easy to reverse them. We know that for certain.

When one looks at the headline figures, a current expenditure reduction of €1.45 billion, a €750 million reduction in the capital programme, €1.6 billion in tax increases - €600 million agreed on last year and an additional €1 billion this year - one must look at the numbers as well. While Senator O'Brien does not believe we will make it, the GDD of 10.1% of GDP was less than the amount of 10.6% that was agreed with the troika. In itself, that was a result. Our target for 2012 is an 8.6% deficit. I think it can be achieved. If Senator O'Brien's figures are correct, the GDP will be decreased. If we even get close to it, the percentage will be achieved. It is the percentage, not the figure, that we must achieve.

I am glad we are having a more reasoned debate than what occurred yesterday, more so than today, in the other Chamber which I thought was distasteful. There was no dignity in what happened yesterday in the other Chamber, with the shouting and hooing and haaing. It does nobody any good. We can agree to disagree. We have different perspectives and different ideologies, and that is what politics and democracy is about.

The process has changed. It is not a big secret arriving in a briefcase or on a disk and there is not a significant photocall outside on the steps of Government Buildings. There is a listening process. Some of that listening process, as I saw last week, resulted in changes over the weekend and the budget being concluded on the morning of the budget, which was yesterday, and that is to be welcomed. On the pupil-teacher ratio, there was a clear indication that there would be an increase of two at primary level and perhaps an increase of one at post-primary level, and that did not happen. There was a better process to achieve the coercion - it is a coercion - for the smaller rural one, two three or four classroom schools, and that is welcome. Also, in the case of the potential decrease for the SNAs, that process was also to be welcomed.

There is something that I want to bring to the notice of the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes. The measure on career guidance is a mistake. As the person who represents a town with what has been the largest school in Ireland for the best part of a decade, I speak with a little knowledge on this. The career guidance teachers were outside of quota because they were required. They were required because there was a necessity and the Minister of State will be aware of that from his time as spokesperson for education for Fine Gael. It is a mistake because I saw at first hand the difficulties, the concerns, the angst and the results. Unfortunately, the results in the school that I know best, which is Gorey Community School, ended up, where there was failure, in the suicide of children. The Government listened over the weekend. It is important that the Government listens between now and the publication of the legislation that will underpin this budget. I am hopeful that this can be altered. My recollection - I tried to put my finger on the figure - is a saving in the region of €10 million, not €10 billion. The moneys for that could be found elsewhere. I would hope that the message would come from here that the Government will find those moneys elsewhere. I am not criticising the budget. I am pointing out that we can do this in another way.

I also welcome the ring-fencing of the DEIS schools. The DEIS schools are in areas, mainly urban, of particular difficulty. We should also reconsider how the calculation for DEIS is done.

On the €250 increase in college registration, I am sure the Minister, Deputy Quinn, would have liked to do anything other than increase that. He had no choice. Perhaps he should not have signed what he signed with the students but, unfortunately, that did happen. Perhaps it was a mistake.

Some 41% of those who went to college did not pay the €2,000 in 2011. I would expect the figures to be similar and that 41% of those who will attend college will not pay the €2,250. We are getting close to 50%. To put it into context, in our closest neighbour, Northern Ireland, £3,500 is what is paid. In England and Wales, it is £9,000.

I do not want to go over the health provisions because time is tight. On the Department of Social Protection, I welcome the standardisation of the children's allowance. We have nothing against the third children. Equally, they should not get more than the first or second child.