Opposition reaction: The Budget Estimates left scant room for improvements in Government services when pay awards for public servants were taken into account, the Opposition claimed last night.
Opposition parties also said taxpayers and the marginalised would bear the brunt of the increased charges for public services and cuts in social welfare payments.
Fine Gael's finance spokesman, Mr Richard Bruton, said the Estimates showed the Government had run out of ideas.
Stating that pay commitments had pre-empted most of the money available for new spending, he said only 30 per cent of the additional resources would go to non-pay budgets.
"The bureaucracy is well-upholstered but what trickles down to people at the bottom of the pile is going to be very, very scarce. So you are going to see people at the bottom of the pile squeezed," he said.
Mr Bruton said it was clear that further increases in stealth taxes were being prepared. Many of these would be raised by local authorities, whose contribution had been frozen for the second year in a row.
He also said the spending for infrastructure was 6.5 per cent short of the anticipated commitment set out last year under the National Development Plan.
He said that pay awards in the health sector and the money required to fund the medical card and drug refund scheme meant that no money would be available to implement the necessary investments in health.
Fine Gael's education spokeswoman, Ms Olwyn Enright, said there was no real increase to the Department of Education.
"Minister Dempsey will be clapping himself on the back because on paper he has increased his budget. What he won't mention is that pay increases and the allocations to the Child Abuse Commission and Residential Institutions Redress swallow almost the full increase."
Criticising "a complete lack of vision", Labour's finance spokeswoman, Ms Joan Burton, said real spending would fall once inflation was taken into account.
"There are real cuts in housing, roads, schools, hospitals, water and sewage, broadband communications and regional airports. In fact, given the underspend this year, total funding for 2004 is €10 million lower than originally provided for in 2003."
Ms Burton said the actual fall in capital spending could have been avoided by borrowing, even within the limits of the EU stability and growth pact.
Labour's social welfare spokesman, Mr Wille Penrose, said the Estimates package contained 16 cuts in social welfare.
He asked: "What is the mindset of a Government that continues to provide generous tax breaks for its wealthy supporters, while singling out children, the unemployed, one-parent families, the disabled and other vulnerable sectors for cutbacks?"
The Green finance spokesman, Mr Dan Boyle, said the 5 per cent rise in voted expenditure was "modest" and the bulk of the increase would be eaten up through public sector pay awards. "Leaving these increases aside, the Government is saying only a 2 per cent increase will be provided in monies to improve services to the general public."
Sinn Féin's leader in the Dáil, Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, said the Government was charging more for less and the increased health charges were "absolutely disgraceful". "These charges are a further blow to those whose income is just above the limit for the medical card. They will now face higher costs for medicine after another significant increase last year," he said.
