Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

We will follow your ruling, a Cheann Comhairle. The budget of 2008, which we discussed here last December, missed the target on many aspects. Like every other budget, and I have been around for many of them, it was like the curate's egg, good in parts. There was one overarching aspect of the budget that everybody thought they knew about. Nobody told the Minister for Finance in December 2007 that we were in for a hard year in 2008 because not an economist in Europe could see it coming. The problem goes back to the Celtic tiger. I was in this House in the late 1970s and 1980s when it was not an inspiring place to be because we did not have the Exchequer resources that became available in the late 1990s and afterwards. The Government stands indicted, however, because no provision was made for a rainy day, good, bad or indifferent.

For a while, the Government thought the sun would shine all the time. It is very easy to be a good Minister for Finance when the Exchequer returns for the current year are greater than the previous year, which was the case for the past seven or eight years. However, the problem is every commentator who appeared on television over the past 12 months following the closure of a factory's gates and people losing their jobs said the reason is Ireland has lost its competitive edge. They cannot all be wrong. We must whip our costs into line to ensure job creation. For example, the costs of haulage, electricity and broadband and port charges must be managed much better than in the past. Other countries can do so and their cost base is lower as a result. At the end of the day, we can have all the argy bargy we like in the House but I will judge this year's budget on whether Ireland can compete where it counts most, which is in the jobs market.

The Bill contains nice provisions, which will make it easier for small business, but the overall problem is the Government parties missed many wonderful opportunities over the past five years. The Minister of State was very vocal as leader of his party when in Opposition about the squander mania on the roads. I recall the announcement of the national development plan, under which €6.5 billion was allocated for the roads programme, but it will cost €20 billion by the time it is completed. Somebody got his or her figures extraordinarily wrong. Would the Government not build many hospitals for €12.5 billion? It is like selling the family silver.

There is no better organisation in Europe than Fianna Fáil for spin doctoring and getting a message across, whether it is right or wrong, to suits its need on a particular day, except on this occasion.

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