Noel Treacy (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I wish to share time with my colleague, Deputy Michael Moynihan.

I am pleased to contribute to this important debate on the Government's spending blueprint for the forthcoming year. For eight successive years the Government, led by Fianna Fáil, has steered the country through the brightest years the nation has enjoyed since independence. By pursuing prudent management of our economy, built on low taxes, and extensive investment in public services and infrastructure, the Government has created the conditions whereby Ireland is a leading economy in the European Union and globally recognised as such. As we enter the second half of the first decade of the 21st century, we have succeeded in bringing Ireland up from its knees. Instead of following, it sets the pace for others. I encounter this in my role as Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs with special responsibility for European affairs. Colleagues and officials across Europe ask constantly how we managed this and how we survived the most serious economic downturn of recent times when their economies are stagnating.

Even the most pessimistic economic commentators recognise that Ireland Inc. is in a strong position and that all relevant indicators are pointing in the right direction. The Deputies opposite continue to do what the Opposition does, namely, throw cold and sometimes dirty water on our many achievements. These earnest pronouncements ring hollow when one looks at their record and hears the increasingly confused messages emanating from prospective rainbow alliance parties that are at sixes and sevens on taxation.

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