Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Most people in this country do not need a report from Grant Thornton or anybody else to tell them we have had an economic crisis. In 2008 the economy crashed, effectively. The people from whom we inherited the Government put the taxpayer on the hazard for the entire banking system when they introduced a blanket guarantee. The consequence was that the country and its taxpayers were made responsible for the debts of the banks. The property bubble that had been at the centre of the previous Government's economic strategy burst and we ended up in a situation at the end of 2010 where the country's financial position was so bad there was nobody in the international money markets who would lend money to this country.

Families and households do not need a report from Grant Thornton or anybody else to tell them how difficult it has been for families for the past five years. It has been difficult for them. People have lost jobs and businesses; they have seen their incomes shrink and, in some cases, their children having to emigrate. The job of work the Government took on was that we rescue the country from that economic disaster and turn it around. We are succeeding in doing so. The figures now available to us show that, compared to what we had prior to the election of the Government, when 250,000 jobs had been lost in the previous three years, we are now creating 3,000 jobs per month. In the course of this week we have seen the number of unemployed persons on the live register at its lowest rate since 2009. We are beginning to see retail activity improving. We are beginning to see recovery. What we have to do is to stay the course, get the country to recover and ensure additional jobs are created, that we drive on with recovery and that we get the public finances in order in order we will not find ourselves in the kind of situation we were in at the end of 2010.

Deputy Stephen Donnelly knows very well that I am not going to talk to him this morning about a budget that is not going to be announced until 15 October. However, I can tell him this. The budget on 15 October will be part of the Government's strategy to continue the job of recovery we have undertaken. It will contribute to it and be balanced and fair.

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