Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yes, I agree. I have no expertise in Galway or Connacht football; I am just using it as a comparison. There is no sign of any stability in the banking system. We are drifting. Does the State have sufficient funds to cover the bank guarantee for deposits? I have been informed that there are not sufficient funds. I ask the Minister of State to tell the people the situation. We saw what happened in Cyprus. Will the same situation be visited on our ordinary people? Cyprus let the genie out of the bottle as far as solidarity in the EU is concerned. This is a concern for Irish taxpayers and Irish savers. We have shouldered enough of the blame and the cost. There is widespread and wholesale shenanigans and blackguarding with regard to the banking institutions in this country. I refer to what Bank of Scotland Ireland did to this country and now they are codding the British taxpayers. I have contacted the chairperson of the Commons committee who grilled the boss of Google last week. I do not wish to hunt Google or to damage anything in this country, but fair play is fine play. The same laws must apply to the big the same as the small people, the little people as I like to call them.

The Minister for Finance is not in the Chamber. I ask the Minister of State if Ulster Bank and Permanent TSB are safe. Are they going under? I do not wish to be alarmist or to upset people. I ask if we have the wherewithal to save any other banks, although it seems we will not be allowed to save them as a result of what happened in Cyprus. We saved them all at a massive cost. I voted for it because I was told it was Armageddon and we had nothing else. None the less, they have codded us all the way since then and are continuing to do so.

The is no sign of anything happening with regard to stability in the banking system. There is no solidarity. There is a fodder crisis because the grass is not growing but there is less growth in the banks. Promises have been made about their ability to lend and their interest in supporting viable and struggling businesses. The Minister and the Taoiseach have the opportunity. The Taoiseach welcomed Mr. Van Rompuy's decision to put energy and taxation on the agenda. However, we are not making a very good job of energy regulation in our own country. Successive Ministers have failed to tackle the monopoly positions of the ESB and Bord Gáis. We know all about taxation in this country, even double and treble taxation. We now have a chance to make our play. The Taoiseach could regain his credibility and some composure as being a representative of the sovereign people of this country. I will not mention the names of any magazines in case I say the wrong one but he should not be on the front cover of all kinds of magazines and going to Boston College and getting claps on the back. I wish him well and congratulate him but that is not what the people want. They want bread and butter on the table, they want to see hope and vision. They want to see money for the education system to which Deputy Murphy referred and which should be educating our people to learn the skills to deal with foreign companies. We have been told many times that companies cannot source the right employees among our college graduates. This is alarming. We need to see timely investment in the education system.

There will be a discussion about a fair taxation system for all Europe but we do not have this at home. Farm Contractors of Ireland, FCI, lobbied the Minister for Finance and every Government backbencher and Minister before the budget.

It is simple and basic - game over - to provide that everybody must have an invoice. I acknowledge that, for some reason, the IFA lobbied against it, but that was not obtained in the budget. It is a pity I do not have the letter the IFA received from the Minister for Finance to read out what the IFA did get. There is a glaring anomaly in our taxation system and if we addressed it, we could get rid of a large part of the black economy overnight. Instead, the Minister wrote back to say he would not do it and advised and encouraged contractors to become informers to police the black economy. It is patent nonsense from the Minister who will be representing us at the European Council and talking about fairness in taxation. We should get our own house in order and examine it to provide some bit of solace to hard-pressed people involved in agriculture and the farming community.

The fodder crisis has not been addressed or dealt with. We have been tinkering around with it for two or three months while Rome - Ireland - burns in a haze of no growth, like the yellow carpet here. A serious situation is being predicted by everybody, including Teagasc, and we are going to have a major problem going into next winter and the following year. Why has the Taoiseach failed to convene the infrastructural strategic committee here as I have requested several times? Why has he not gone to our EU partners, especially given his position as the man in charge, to ask them to support Ireland and its agricultural industry through the European Union Solidarity Fund, which exists for that reason? Why has he not impressed this on his colleagues in Europe, who are here often enough? If he hired a bus or helicopter to bring them down the country or to one of the knackeries that are full, they would not be long getting the reality for desperate farmers who are calling social services and helplines because they cannot provide for their animals. The farmers are ready and willing. Talk of CAP negotiations and reform will all be wasted if we do not intervene to implore and insist that the European Union Solidarity Fund is used to support our agricultural industry - not just farmers - as it is the backbone of the country. When the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance get the courage and the EU accepts that there is an emergency here, there should be no shame in it. It is a weather-related problem that prevents the farming community from providing for their animals.

The Government should insist that the EUSF comes in here in a meaningful way and recognises that there is a crisis in a member state. As with the banking crisis, this is a serious crisis of very significant proportions going forward. The Government must insist that the EU accepts that we have a national crisis and that regulations must be lifted for the moment. I am not saying anyone should get away with an irregularity, but farm payments must be front-loaded and paid out to people who are desperately in need of them. The banks are beyond talking about. I do not know what we will do with them given that we cannot get our own banking situation in order. The solidarity fund must be used. The Taoiseach must impress that on people. It is fine to bring his colleagues over every so often to entertain them at Dublin Castle. I am delighted that many musicians and dancers from Tipperary, the Brú Boru centre and Comhaltas were brought to entertain them, but it is time to stop the dancing and tell them the real message of our need for hope and support. We must get it. We are not looking for anything special; we are entitled to this as a European partner.

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