Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on the Finance Bill, which implements the statement of the Minister for Finance on the recent supplementary budget. I must comment on the contribution of the previous speaker, particularly with regard to the situation in which we find ourselves currently. To say the economic difficulties we are facing are due entirely to international circumstances is not true. The Minister of State blamed lax regulation, Irish society, international events and the political mass as a whole. However, if we look back at the post-budget statements of Deputy Richard Bruton for the last number of years we will see it was pointed out time and again to the Minister and to the Government parties the potential error of their ways. The chickens have now come home to roost.

Last week in an article in The Irish Times, Michael Casey, a former senior official at the Central Bank, pointed out that two thirds of the difficulties in which we find ourselves are due to national policies - that is, of our own making, or of the Government's making - and one third to the international financial crisis. That will answer the Minister of State's comments.

He also criticised the introduction of free third level education by the rainbow coalition of 1994-97, implying that all it resulted in was wealthy parents' buying apartments for their sons and daughters. The Minister criticised the introduction of free third level education by the rainbow Government. He implied that it resulted in wealthy parents buying apartments for their children, a total misrepresentation of the situation. He clearly has no concept of the value of education and ensuring equal access for all children to third level education.

It is particularly cynical that the Government is leaving any announcement about its intentions until after the local and European elections on 5 June. It smacks of a Government afraid to announce its own intentions. The Minister has said it will not affect students attending third level in September but those students will face an increase in registration fees from €900 to €1,500, another whack for the families struggling in the current economic crisis.

I was very disappointed that there was no mention of job protection or job creation in the Bill, no mention of any measures that would have ensured we could stem the tide of job losses across the State and give some sense of hope to employers struggling to retain employees. We could have been imaginative with the PRSI system, introducing a measure whereby employers would not have to contribute for new employees. That simple measure would have given hope and helped companies take on new staff but it was ignored.

A reduction in VAT to encourage activity in small jobs and home improvements was ignored. It would have helped the construction, tourism and hospitality sectors but such measures have not been introduced. Instead the Bill increases the pressures on middle and lower income families.

Consumer confidence is gone. Retail figures show a further reduction, a sign that consumers are spending less, with a fall of 29% in 2009, much of which is due to the car industry, but with a 7% decrease in consumer spending in February 2009. Ireland has seen the largest fall in consumer spending in 2009, with a drop of 8.1%, compared to 4.9% in Italy, the closest to us. Other countries are not experiencing the same lack of consumer confidence.

That will only be added to this month when the health and income levy increases kick in, taking a huge amount from the economy that will no longer be available for spending. The Fine Gael approach to the budget laid an emphasis on stimulus, not taxing people so much, and focused on public service inefficiency and dealing with waste. We see none of that from the Government, where there is a complete lack of emphasis on tackling those issues that must be tackled to ensure we return to competitiveness.

Our competitiveness has been eroded in the last ten years. In the early 1990s there was a lean, fit economy. The explosion in public spending caused us to become unfit and has ensured that those producers dependent on the export market are competing in a market overburdened with high charges. It does not matter if one is exporting financial services or butter, they are all saddled with the same high costs.

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