Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity of speaking on this motion. At present our economy is in recession. The increasing rate of consumer price inflation is due not only to the global energy situation and rising food prices, but also to the lack of action, in terms of domestic policy, on regulation, competition and public sector management. The Government has sabotaged Ireland's capacity to handle tougher economic times through reckless financial management over several years. In the past two years the Government has increased its day-to-day spending by 65% more than the level of economic growth and has made absolutely no effort to deliver value for money. Inflation is running at 5% and our economy is haemorrhaging up to 3,000 jobs per week, yet the Government is like a rabbit trapped in the headlights — it does not know where to turn. Its anti-inflation group has not met for the past 12 months. It sees no need to introduce corrective strategies and has failed to respond to the demand for action or put in place any plan to deal with the issue of competitiveness within the public sector, which has been demanded by its organisation, the National Competitiveness Council.

It is clear that the political will is not there to carry out the reform that is urgently needed. According to the Mazars statement on 3 June, the credit crunch is far more broadly based and deep rooted than most people think and it will take three to five years for businesses to recover. It is clear that the housing sector collapse is spilling over into the wider economy, yet the Government is prepared to do absolutely nothing to support the economy.

We have put forward a proposal to deal with this. Getting rid of an array of quangos would save €200 million of taxpayers' money over the next four years. There is also the proposal before the House today. The Government is knocking it back but has not come forward with any solution to address the recession, which is being compounded by the lack of action and direction in the Government. The only statement the Government has made in responding to this motion is that it is the wrong direction to take, yet it is not prepared to say what it will do. It has been said that we need to reduce the demand for energy. There will be absolutely no difficulty in reducing demand if this Government sits on its hands as it has done for the past 12 months because we will not have an economy to demand oil, fuel or energy. That is what is happening at present. The Government, which has been in place for the past ten years and does not know the realities of day-to-day living in our society, does not realise the impact that the fuel crisis and the recession are having on families that are trying to cope. The response of the Minister for Finance this week was to tell people to stop whingeing and put up with the rapid rise in prices.

What we have done is put forward a sensible, straightforward proposal. A total of €315 million per annum is being taken in by private companies and a semi-State company for doing absolutely nothing. As far as the Government is concerned, these companies should be allowed to pocket that money, although it is being taken directly from young families that are struggling to cope. The proposals before the House would have a direct impact on our competitiveness by reducing inflation by 0.2% and would act as a direct stimulus to the economy, which is badly needed.

In recent years, Ireland's competitiveness has plummeted by 17 places in the rankings, resulting in mounting business costs and inflation, yet the attitude of Government Members is to blame it on external factors and say it has nothing to do with them. They are burying their heads in the sand. The Government's response to the flagging construction industry and housing sector was put across well by the former Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, whose approach was to suggest that people move to the UK and get jobs in the industry there. Sadly, that is what is happening in my constituency. Young men travel up to Knock Airport on Monday morning, get on a plane and fly to London, work there during the week and fly back on Friday evening. That is not acceptable. These are men with young families who must commute to the UK on a weekly basis.

This proposal would give a badly needed boost to our tourism industry, which has seen a 6% to 8% fall in the number of tourists from countries other than the UK in the past few months. The VAT take from kerosene is estimated to double this year, from €77 million in 2007 to €144 million in 2008. The EU oil price bulletin shows that home heating oil in Ireland is the most expensive in the EU and is 24% more expensive than diesel even though they are basically identical products. In 23 member states, home heating oil is cheaper than diesel, but in this country the opposite is the case. If we could even get our prices down to European levels Irish families would save €50 million a year. Irish families are struggling because of the incompetence of the Government, which refused to put in place proper building standards in the past few years to support its buddies in the construction industry. Now the Government is saying it is not prepared to support young families who are trying to cope with the energy crisis and the increasing cost of living. I commend the motion to the House.

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