Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Today is the beginning and the end of the budget debate. It is the beginning and the end of the discussion of how we finance vital public services. I say it is the beginning and the end because regardless of what the Opposition say, the Government will still plough ahead with what is obvious economic suicide. We were told by the Government that we could make a submission if we wished. If that process was one of serious engagement, it would be great but it is not. It is a process that demands that we show the Government what we have but we do not get to see what the alternative is - that is, until today when it is too late.

The most striking part of the two Ministers' speeches was the use of the slippery language of deceit. Yeats and Wilde must be turning in their graves at how the English language was abused here today in order to justify the unjustifiable. The Minister for Finance says with a totally straight face that unemployment is down. There is no mention of the fact that people are leaving this country in droves. If a tsunami came to our shores and one half of our population was wiped out, would the Minister come in here the next day and tell us how he solved the unemployment crisis? If he did this, it would be no more farcical than what he said today. The Government can try to ignore and forget the people who left this country but we will not forget them. Unemployment is only down because of what the Government has done, namely, driven them out of the country.

The unemployment crisis will remain the same unless some fundamental reforms are made, many of which were promised when the two Government parties were looking for votes. Upward only rent reviews is one example. This is crippling businesses but the Government now claims that it would not be possible to tackle it. How convenient but for whom? It is not convenient for the ordinary people.

Local government reform was promised. Meaningful reform would mean huge savings which could be passed on in the form of rates reductions. Current rate levels are unsustainable and are crippling existing businesses and preventing new entries into business. One example is a hotel in Roscommon which remains closed because anyone interested in opening it would face a rates bill of almost €50,000 per annum. I predict the hotel will fall into a state of disrepair and become derelict because of unsustainably high rates. At the same time, the manager of Roscommon County Council earns more than the Prime Minister of Spain. There is a suite of directors of services costing the guts of €750,000 per year. We also have more chief and assistant fire officers - a total of four costing €400,000 per year - than New York city. The Government is standing by this. The result of this madness is that businesses are crippled with high rate bills and the Government is doing nothing about it.

Healthy competition between businesses is the lifeblood of a successful economy. When this Government came to power, we were promised a robust Competition Authority. We have had no luck there. The former head of the Competition Authority, John Fingleton, estimated that lax enforcement was costing the Irish economy €4 billion per year. The Government would get many home helps out of that. What did the Government do to help business? It introduced the Competition (Amendment) Act which was not worth the paper it was written on. It contained no provision for civil fines and no rewards for whistleblowers although we know what the Government thinks about them because we heard it in the Dáil yesterday. It contained no effective private enforcement even though it is part of European law. The Government is great at telling me about European law but not very good at sticking to it. There was a failure to prevent regulatory capture. Finally, to show that this Government does not believe in real competition, the Competition Authority is underfunded to the point where there are only two gardaí taking care of it. We have more gardaí in a small part of west Roscommon than that.

Put all this together and it is clear that the Government is crippling business. We often hear about governments that are pro-business and pro-people. This Government is neither and is the enemy of both business and people. Does the Government believe the Irish League of Credit Unions when it states that 1.8 million people are left with only €100 at the end of every month? If it did, it would not have done what it did with PRSI today, would not have imposed a further property tax and would not have cut the suckler cow premium scheme for farmers. If the Government gave a damn, it would not have cut child benefit. I know some members of the Government might use it for holidays but when I was growing up, it was used to pay the electricity bill.

The Government might not call electricity a core need of a family but I do. I believe families have a right to it. If the Government cared about ordinary people it would have done something about household and mortgage debt. Instead it has left the whip hand with the people who destroyed the country, namely, the bankers. They decide whether to cut one's debt and will they do so? No, they will not.

What would I have done? That is why I am here. What would my alternative have been? I would have approached the multinational companies and told them the Government of the past two years had made a mess of running the country. I would have told them we are on the brink of collapsing as a society, something which is neither of benefit to them nor the ordinary people of Ireland. I would have informed them that Ireland was embarking on reform which would make the country more competitive and leaner than ever before. I would also have informed them that this process would take two years and to achieve it during this time a levy of 2.5% would be put on corporation tax. At the end of two years of real reform the levy would be lifted and their companies would do even better in an economy where price competition for services existed. This levy would raise €750 million.

I would also refuse to pay the promissory notes, which according to a research paper I had prepared by the Oireachtas Library and Research Service would save us €1.3 billion. Standardising tax breaks for pension contributions to 20% would increase the tax take by €700 million. Eliminating tax free status on lump sum pensions would save €170 million. I would also legalise cannabis, which according to research done by the Oireachtas Library and Research Service would save the country €500 million.

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