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

I firstly compliment the two Ministers on their handling of the economy in challenging times, that will remain challenging for some considerable time. We all wish them well in their endeavours over the next couple of weeks. I have a couple of pieces of advice from somebody who was around. I was not a Member of this House in the 1970s. A strange thing that happened with energy in the 1970s was that the supply slowed to nothing. There were queues at garages all over the country. People borrowed cans to collect fuel and so on. It was totally unsatisfactory. The point I am making is that the situation needs to be monitored carefully to ensure that we do not find ourselves back in that situation.

Another matter requires constant attention. In an inflationary situation, I accept that it is necessary to support the economy, but paying the household bills cannot go on forever. It will not work and has never worked before. I will debate that subject with anybody. I am not suggesting that it is the intention, but I am saying that care needs to be taken. It is like a merry-go-round. Once one gets on that merry-go-round, one cannot get off except under special circumstances.

The last point I want to make is that the Ministers will get advice from every quarter, including from all around the table here. We will advise the Ministers about how they should proceed. I have heard some advice from the Commission on Taxation and Welfare in the last couple of weeks. If the Ministers want to make themselves really unpopular, follow that lead. People in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s paid interest rates of 17% or 18% on their mortgages, tried to educate their kids at the same time, paid tax at the high rates, and bailed out their kids when they did not have a deposit for a house in the 1990s, then found themselves under threat of eviction after all that.

My advice, for what it is worth, is that if the Ministers want to become unpopular with people in that age group and their sons and daughters, by all means they should penalise them for doing what they did when they did - for providing themselves with homes they hope to hand over to their kids. For the State to intervene and grab what it can, even though taxation was paid on all those salaries and borrowings, is not advisable. I thank the Chairperson for letting me in and my learned colleague can and no doubt will take over where I left off.