Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I take the opportunity to congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Áine Brady, on her appointment. I wish her success in her ministry.

Yesterday, when the Minister introduced the Finance Bill to the House, he said that in recent weeks there had been some glimmers of hope that there might be an end in sight to the deepest depression we have witnessed for seven years. I thought he was going to go on to say that the end of the Government's reign might be in sight. The Government has made four attempts to rectify the finances of the country and to date all have failed. Without a strategy of any kind, the Government latches on to glimmers of hope at international level - in the United States and some parts of Europe. It may look for these but at its own back door we see the constant stream of job losses and its failure to rectify the banking system, despite its many efforts to do so, all of which have proved disastrous. We realise the state the country is in, without hope or credibility, or the trust of the people in the Government and its capacity to lead us out of the depression. There is no confidence in the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and the Tánaiste, three long-standing Ministers. They should have seen the signs, the darkening clouds over the economy.

There is also a clear indication that personnel within the Department of Finance must have seen what was happening with regard to the national finances and the way in which they were deteriorating in recent years. As recently as the last general election, all Opposition parties were told that we were looking forward to and would achieve a 4% growth rate. That figure was given to Opposition finance spokespersons by officials in the Department. As it has turned out, this was clearly and completely unsustainable. I do not know how they could have made such a crucial mistake at the time. If it had been identified and the alarms had gone off, surely something might have been done more readily.

The Minister said the Finance Bill was giving effect to the supplementary measures addressed in two important requirements, showing a credible way forward on our structural problems and protecting the economy. I do not know how any Minister could make such a statement, as regards the Government's credible way forward. It has made three or four attempts and all of them to date have failed. A Minister who makes a statement such as that in the current crisis must not care for what the people think nor have any concern as to how the country could be directed towards recovery in the future.

There is a constant list of job losses. Every single week we hear, tragically, that additional numbers are losing their jobs. While, to the Minister and this Government, it might be just numbers, behind them are people with families and mortgages who must live through each day, having lost their jobs - and they are being put to the pin of their collar to sustain their livelihood.

When one looks at the lists of cutbacks in this budget and the October one, one sees that the most vulnerable people in our society are affected. In October medical cards were withdrawn for the over-70s. In this most recent budget the Minister for Education and Science has reduced the number of special needs teachers throughout the country, with serious effects for many families. As if that were not sufficient, we have all the other cuts, too, such as increasing class sizes and the impact this will have on opportunities for people. When we talk about a "smart society" in other situations, how can we justify increasing class sizes, affecting every child in the country?

I endorse what my colleague, Deputy Bannon, said earlier about welcoming the Minister's proposal to extend the mid-Shannon scheme for improving tourism in the inland areas throughout the country, particularly in the area around Portumna. The record will show that throughout the terms in office of the three previous Ministers for Finance I had asked that the pilot scheme that was in place for the upper Shannon region be extended to the mid-Shannon. It is a worthwhile initiative, although it is being restricted to the area of tourism. It will give tourism in the mid-Shannon region the impetus it needs.

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