Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I wish to share time with Deputies Michael Ahern, Chris Andrews and Michael McGrath.

The sight, overnight, of an unusually humble President Bush addressing the American people on the parlous state of their economy is a vivid testimony to the extraordinary economic times in which we find ourselves. They are extraordinary times in which pillars of world commerce, such as Lehman Brothers and AIG Insurance, fail and in which the foundations of the US home loan sector are crumbling and the availability of credit worldwide has virtually come to a halt. Household banking names such as Halifax Bank of Scotland are being taken over within hours as normal rules of competition law are suspended to save the foundations of the system. Ireland cannot be immune from these extraordinary times but, through Government policy and action in the past ten years, we have foundations in place to help us face into them.

Our pension reserve fund, valued at €19.5 billion, affords huge protection against the pension challenge we face in the future and is a protection many other countries do not have. An ongoing public infrastructure programme, worth €30 billion, is transforming roads and schools around the country. Despite the serious challenges in the area of unemployment there remain more than 2 million people at work in the economy, with 700,000 new jobs having been created. There have been job losses recently but there is job creation every week right across the country, a point which is being lost amid the news of losses.

We have a very generous welfare system and State pensions have been transformed in the past ten years, now standing at a level of €208 per week and increasing. We have a highly educated, young and motivated workforce who, through their own efforts and intelligence and backed up by good staff and serious investment in third and fourth level education, are among the best in the world.

It is important to reiterate these facts over and over because there are many who wish to discount them, ignore them and belittle the achievements of the past ten years. There are many who, in the words of the motion, dismiss them as reckless budgetary policies while ignoring the many tangible benefits they have brought. The forthcoming budget, on 14 October, will be tough and the Minister and the Taoiseach are not softening people up but telling it as it is. It will be a budgetary response to the extraordinary times to which I have referred. We cannot take for granted the changes and improvements in our country during the past 20 years. We cannot presume, as many do, that the good economic times will always be with us. The Fianna Fáil Party will be four-square behind the Minister for Finance on 14 October in regard to whatever decisions are made.

Other parties challenge the Minister and accuse him of doing nothing in response to the crisis. I challenge them to provide us with an alternative budget, to set out their stall so that they can be judged rather than offering cheap soundbites to journalists when present in the House or to the national newspapers. I challenge further those who are calling for reform and criticising the Government for inaction not to spend the next 12 months running around the country criticising cutbacks while calling for more cutbacks in this Chamber without offering specifics.

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