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

We are regularly warned about dependence on or possible flight of the multinational corporations. Of course, we need to recognise one thing. First, it is good to have them there and it is a good sign of our economy that they remain and want to remain here. They will all be hit by international events at present and we need to take that into account. Things do not go on forever. We need also to be looking at possible other avenues of revenue we can rely on in the future, not in any way to overlook or minimise the contribution being made by the corporate sector at present, but to recognise we should not depend entirely on it as we did in the case of the construction sector at the time of the crash. However, that was not the only reason for the collapse at that time.

The question always remains that we must have a budgeted balance. We must spend in a way that is in the national interest, not to live today and let somebody else pick up the tab tomorrow. It is very responsible of us to recognise that at some stage in the future we might well be asked to take cuts, perhaps as bad as before - I do not know. That depends on the effect of the war in Ukraine and what happens as a result. However, the fact is we need to use carefully the funds we have. We need to ensure we are prudent in our spending and do not borrow to spend. We had to do it in some circumstances in recent years, but it is to be hoped we will not have to do it anymore. We should save for unforeseen events as we go along. That is very important.

I heard politicians in the House stating repeatedly that we did not need to save and did not need a rainy day fund, that it is raining now so we should spend it now. That is fine and it sounds good. However, it will lead to a disaster if we repeat the mistakes of that particular era. There are always the flowery speeches politicians make and I am sure I make them myself, though I try not to. The flowery bit might not relevant but the exaggeration might well be. The point is we need to realise we have to be careful in our dealings in this area and these fragile times in which we live. We should not try to expect to enter the economy and fund it deliberately to keep people afloat and then do the same the next year and the year following. That can only be done with the new resources. It may well have political consequences for those who are in the driving seat at the time, but the fact remains the Government cannot buy its way out of difficulties all of the time. Anywhere that has happened in the past, it has gone awry. Look at a place such as Venezuela, which has lots of resources, and the situation it is in now. We need to be very careful and sound in our economics, recognising and reading the future carefully and taking measures that do not get involved in creating or extending inflation. We have to pay for our own running costs, as it were. We have to pay for our own economy insofar as we can, except in extreme emergency.

We have to tell the people as we go along that there are easier ways to do it and we can live less frugally and gain more. That is fine and I have heard all of that before. I do not want to go apologising to economists all over again about all of the things they said and I said about them in the past. We need to keep a close, cold and hard eye on reality as we move forward carefully.