Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I might not call a vote on it but I wish to speak on the section. This committee is here today to deal with the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill. I put it to the Minister, Deputy Howlin, that Ireland is not in a financial emergency now, although it might have been in the past. It might have been in an emergency when we brought in the FEMPI legislation in 2009 and 2010 and amending legislation in 2013. During those years Ireland had a severe budget deficit, exceptionally high interest payments on our very high national debt, a very high level of unemployment and many other economic difficulties. Emigration was rife and there was a general acceptance that there was a financial emergency.

However, I remind the Minister of the Government's recent actions. Some 13 months ago, the week before the budget, and in the spring statement last year, everybody was told there was going be a negative adjustment of about €2 billion. When we came to budget day, we had a positive adjustment of €1 billion. That was a turnaround of €3 billion. Then immediately after that budget, the Government announced Supplementary Estimates of approximately €1.2 billion. In advance of the 2015 budget, the Government announced somewhere in the region of €1.6 billion for Supplementary Estimates. The adjustment in this year's budget was €1.5 billion. I estimate that over the past 13 months, the Government has been able to find additional room for extra expenditure to the order of €7.3 billion over and above what was projected. How does the Minister reconcile the Government's position over a period of 13 months from September of 2014 to October 2015, of having an extra €7.3 billion by way of tax cuts and an increase in expenditure with saying to this committee that he wants to pass a financial emergency Bill? The two positions are irreconcilable. We were in a financial emergency but we are not in an emergency now.

The Tánaiste said in the Dáil recently that within the next year or so, the level of Ireland's debt will be at the same level as Germany's, relative to GNP and to the European average. If the Minister, Deputy Howlin, believes that Ireland needs new financial emergency legislation as we head into 2016, will somebody in the Government please pick up the phone and tell Angela Merkel that it is our belief, based on what we think is a financial emergency, Germany is also in a financial emergency?

The Taoiseach tells us that this is the best little country to do business in. Every week we have announcements of improvements in the economy and there is extra money available for health and social welfare, all of which I welcome. However, I do not see how that tallies with the Minister saying that Ireland going forward is in a financial emergency. I believe the emergency is over and that no emergency currently exists. I tabled amendments to repeal the FEMPI legislation, with effective from 1 January 2016.

I understand people will put the frighteners on the public by saying the FEMPI legislation achieved savings of €3 billion or €2 billion and that if it was all unplugged, it would all have to be repaid tomorrow morning with knobs on in terms of interest, etc.

Nobody believes that. I have outlined the €1.5 billion adjustment made in the budget, the €1.6 billion in Supplementary Estimates, the details of which we do not yet know, as they will be brought before the House in the coming weeks, a €1.2 billion Supplementary Estimate last December and the €3 billion adjustment announced on budget day last year, about which we were informed a fortnight previously. That amounts to a figure of €7.3 billion, which is welcome, but that proves to any reasonable observer that there is no financial emergency. That tells me that the legislation we have on the Statute Book is a mere fig leaf. I am satisfied that if anyone challenged any provision of that legislation or this legislation in the courts today or tomorrow, it would not last a moment. No judge could stand over that figure of €7.3 billion as being consistent with a financial emergency. We should catch up with the reality of the economy and recognise, "thankfully" - I use the word all the time - that the financial emergency is over.

The Minister says this measure is necessary to facilitate the Lansdowne Road agreement, the principle of which I supported prior to, and following, its finalisation; my party has always supported social dialogue and agreement. I also support the increase in the minimum wage that will happen in tandem with it in the new year. None of these measures is consistent with a financial emergency. While it is right to facilitate the Lansdowne Road agreement, this legislation is not necessary. Effectively, the Minister is saying: "We have a little less of an emergency that we had, so we can remove some provisions of the FEMPI legislation." The arbiter of what was a financial emergency is not subject to discussion in the Lansdowne Road agreement and should not be the yardstick we use. If the agreement required a recognition that the FEMPI legislation was not needed to its fullest extent, I would agree with that, but I do not agree that we should pass new financial emergency measures. I ask the Minister, in the context of the Title of the Bill, to reconcile the strength of the economy, about which he keeps telling us, with the need for financial emergency legislation. I could produce a list of what all Ministers have said in the past month, in boasting about the strength of economic growth. That is fine, as that is party politics, but underlying economic facts back it up.