Paul Bradford (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My apologies for missing the initial part of the debate. I trust most of it was a rerun of yesterday's budget debate. It is fair to say that during the course of the finance Bill and the social welfare Bill we will all have ample opportunity to go through the measures in more detail and make whatever suggestions we believe are appropriate. Perhaps in his reply the Leader might indicate to the House whether he knows when the social welfare Bill and the finance Bill will come before the House.

I support what Senator Burke has said in respect of the health budget. All of us know and it is fair to say that there are and have been serious problems in the Department of Health for many years. It is not the current Minister or his immediate predecessor who have the substantial questions to answer because matters started going out of control in the Department more than a decade ago. I supported the establishment of the HSE because I believed the centralisation of administration seemed a good idea at the time. However, it has not worked as effectively as we had thought. Therefore, we need a debate on the Department to which the taxpayer is giving over €13 billion every year but which is not delivering the services that our citizens need. I look forward to that.

The €100 dole money for young people is something which will have to reflect on seriously during the social welfare debate. I appreciate all of us must try to ensure that a culture or welfare dependency does not keep hold. However, it has taken hold and perhaps this measure is designed in some small way to try to address that. There is some sign of a deportation order for certain categories of young people arising from this €100 payment.

There is another figure we should reflect on. I understand it costs, on average, approximately €100,000 to educate a child to the end of second level, which is a modest cost. Let us ignore third level costs for now. Up to 70,000 or 80,000 of those children or young people emigrate almost on an annual basis. I see this as a net loss to the State of €7 billion per annum. Emigration is not solving the problem or, if it is, it is only doing so in a short-term way. We have invested €7 billion in people who are flocking out of the country on an annual basis. We need a substantive debate about young people, their future in this country and emigration. I am keen to know when the finance and social welfare Bills will be debated.