Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

——I would get rid of six of them, for a start. I would get rid of half the programme managers and advisers and all the waste in public offices. The Minister was also late last week. Everybody in the country was talking about what was happening in the economy. The Minister might recall the film "Mary Poppins". In that film the young child went into the bank but would not lodge his two pence. As a result, there was a run on the bank for the first time in 100 years. The same thing happened in this country last week but the Minister did not make a move until Saturday. He nearly left it too late.

People were ringing me and every other Deputy to ask if their money was safe. What we need now is leadership — a strong Government, Taoiseach and Minister for Finance. What did we have last week? We could not get a Minister to speak. The Minister spoke on Friday and said he would not interfere with the market or the banks. However, at lunchtime on Saturday he had to tell people that the Government would underwrite deposits of up to €100,000. That was correct but if the Minister had spoken sooner it would not have been necessary. However, the Minister and the Government were gone all week. They took their eyes off the ball.

In the past few months, since the previous Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, became Taoiseach, 45,000 jobs have been lost in this country. Where was the Government for the summer? When every other government in Europe was trying to figure out how to save their economies, this Government was gone, travelling all over the world. It should have been here. A special Cabinet meeting should have been held in August to show the people that the Government was doing something about the economy, that it was in charge and would not let the country go down the drain. However, there was no Minister or Taoiseach to be found throughout the summer.

This is serious business. There are 45,000 people who will not have a job this Christmas. Other people are wondering whether their jobs will be safe tomorrow, next week, next month or next year. We need to hear from the Minister for Finance. He should not take the soft options when he introduces the budget in two weeks. He must not attack the social insurance fund again. That is the working people's fund; the money that has been put away for the rainy day and for pensions. The Minister must not raid it. The former Minister, Charlie McCreevy, raided it in good times but this Minister had better not raid it in bad times. That fund is for people's pensions and for the future.

If the Minister wished to show leadership, he would tackle the oil companies. The price of diesel and petrol goes up and down but the price at the pump does not. That is a simple job and the Tánaiste should deal with it. She should speak to representatives of the oil companies and ask them why this is happening. I travelled from the west to the east of this country last night. There was a different price for petrol and diesel at the pumps in every village and town. That should not happen. If the Government was doing its job, it would tackle the people who are ripping us off. We are being ripped off by all sides.

The Minister for Finance has a job to do and he must take it seriously. He must ensure the economy does not go down the drain. For the past ten years the Government spent, spent and spent. What would happen to a householder who did the same? People have always put a few pounds or euro away for the rainy day but this Government did not. The Government thought the boom was never going to end. When it did, who did it blame? It blamed Fine Gael and Deputy Richard Bruton, accusing us of talking down the economy. Where were the advisers and the people in the Department of Finance? Did they not know that taxation revenue was not coming in? Did they not see a downturn over the past two years? No, like the Government they were telling people about all the taxes that were being paid and what would be done to spend those taxes.

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