Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

——and the Taoiseach has presided over most of it for the last couple of years. Ireland faces a serious economic challenge as growth is projected to be slightly more than 1% this year. More than 200,000 people were on the live register in May and there is a shortfall in taxes of €3 billion, in addition to the unprecedented projected deficit of €5 billion. This means that businessmen, commuters and average workers face a period of great uncertainty and there is palpable evidence of a leaking of confidence from the economy.

The point is that people are anxious that the Government has no plan to manage the economy in a manner that would protect their incomes and livelihoods. The only evidence provided in this House of a plan in the past month was a comment from the Taoiseach in respect of the national development plan, in which he stated it was unlikely the Government would be in a position to spend the projected €252 million over the lifetime of the plan to provide information technology in schools to enable young people to measure up to the competition from abroad. From this perspective, it also is obvious that people are more than concerned and are becoming highly agitated that the Government does not have a plan to manage the economy through the challenges that lie ahead. Increasingly, people are becoming more concerned about the security of their jobs and incomes, the value of their houses and pensions, serious cutbacks in health and education and rising spending pressure in the Department of Social and Family Affairs. The Taoiseach stated yesterday he would take some action to curb the growth in current spending and that this would be brought about by adjustments. What action does the Taoiseach propose to take and when is it proposed to take it? Can the Taoiseach provide a guarantee that frontline services will not be chopped in any adjustments that are made?

See this speech in context