Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague for sharing her slot. I acknowledge and congratulate the Minister and Minister of State on the tremendous work they are doing to raise awareness of the need for more apprentices, including highly qualified apprentices, in a way that has not been done before. Today's news that we have 2.5 million people at work is a major achievement that should not go astray. I was a Member of this House when we fought hard to bring the number of people employed up to 1 million. We are now heading for 3 million, which is a great achievement. It is a great economic achievement and credit should be given, and taken, for achieving that landmark at this time.

I agree with my colleague that there should be more apprenticeships for women. Lots of young women nowadays are anxious to go into areas that were not previously a particular area for women and they want to succeed and excel there. They are willing to make their contribution to the economy through that area. We also need to recognise, as we are doing, that this area is becoming competitive on the international market. It is good that it is competitive and it is good that our apprentices might be in a position to compete with all others, wherever they come from. In the past, the polytechnics in eastern Europe were highly competitive and apprentices from there were highly competent when they went into the workplace. Many of them are working in this country and they are welcome.

There are times when we tend to drop the head and feel defeated. I am thinking of the criticism that came from the other side of the House not so long ago. Several entities from outside the House were identified and named, which is a serious breach.

I am just bringing that to the attention of the House once again. It is not in order – simple as that - but it has become customary in this House, and that is a sad way to go.

Incidentally, I never blamed Fianna Fáil, for instance, for the economic crash. It came about for a variety of reasons and it was sudden, swift and colossal, a huge hit on the country. To blame Fine Gael, the Labour Party, Fianna Fáil, the Government or anybody else for everything that happened thereafter is outrageous. It does not address the issues as they were. It is simply selecting somebody to blame. I recall quite well that when all the experts were called on, they all had their say. Some of them left this country and went to Greece to advise the Greeks, who, fortunately, did not take up the offer and ultimately survived. A plethora of people were offering economic advice as to what should be done to help the country recover. Fortunately, it was never followed by anybody.

Economic life has never been easy; it has always been competitive. If a mistake were made for any reason, everybody paid for it. To the Deputies on the other side of the House who like to aim their sights on the present Government and blame it for everything that happened previously, I remind them it took a significant effort on behalf of the current Government, and of successive Governments and of the people, to recover from what happened to the country those short few years ago.

Fine Gael is accused nowadays of having been in government for more than ten years, a recipe for presuming it should not be there any longer. In the first five years, we were accompanied by the IMF, which was in government along with the Fine Gael-Labour Party Government of the day during that period, and the Government could do nothing without its approval. That was not fun. It is a fact that happened and we went through it. All of that happened and it is a great achievement we are in our current position. Some members of the Opposition, as it happens, have been to the fore in dealing with these issues as well, so they should also take credit. At the end of the day, we are where we are, where we had not been since 1845, with the largest number of people ever in employment. That is a major achievement. We can and will do much more, but we need to recognise we have to be competitive.

We learned two lessons during the Celtic tiger era. We learned to be greedy, which was unfortunate, but we also developed qualities we had thought we did not have, such as self-belief and confidence in our own ability. Where previously we had exported our population to help other countries prosper, suddenly we were in a position, as we now are, where we could encourage people to join us and help us make the country better for them and everybody else. We should rightly take a bow and be proud of the achievements on behalf of the people and the Government. We are not as bad as we are made out to be.

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