Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The Deputy is correct. It was a very good Government. The country was in great shape. Fianna Fáil claimed it created the boom but it has busted the bubble and the economy. Now they are blaming Fine Gael by saying we are talking down the economy. What they want us to say when it is raining is that the sun is shining and they want us to say that Fianna Fáil gave us the fine day.

This Government squandered and does not know if it is a cutback or a saving. If this is a saving, why was it not done during the past ten years? Did we allow every Department and every agency squander away for ten years? If that is the kind of Government we had, it is no wonder this economy is in the state it is in. Those who are going to suffer will be the sick, the weak, the old and people with mental illness. It has started already with cutbacks in my constituency. The Mayo mental health service has been cut back, the home care package is gone and enhanced subvention is gone. Now they are talking about reducing the home help service and they cannot provide a bed in hospitals or in nursing homes for people who are sick. The weak will be the first to be hit by the cutbacks. Why do we not start at the top with the millionaires? Why do we not target the people who spend six months in this country, come back for the all-Irelands and the race meetings yet do not pay tax in this country? Instead we start with the weak, the sick and the old.

I agree with Deputy O'Keeffe; Fianna Fáil has lost its way, but not today, nor yesterday. They lost their way many years ago because they spent too much time at the Galway races and in Leopardstown, Punchestown and at all these race meetings because these people meant more to them than the grass roots and the ordinary people of Ireland. They forget about the people who put them there for the past 20 years.

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