Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

With respect to the Taoiseach, the question I asked him was what explanation he has for turning a €6 billion surplus into a €15 billion deficit in two years. What is his explanation for leading this country into recession? As per the published data, we are the only country in Europe now in recession.

There are the little matters of acceptance of responsibility and attachment of blame. The Taoiseach never accepts responsibility for the actions of his Government. He takes the credit but he will not take any blame. The Taoiseach and his Government were responsible for building the largest ever property bubble in this country, the most indebted financial system, the greatest loss in competitiveness and the largest ever deterioration in public finances.

It is not the global financial turmoil that is responsible for the fact that thousands of small businesses and shopkeepers cannot pay their water charges never mind their commercial rates. It is not the global financial position that has caused the overcrowding in Drogheda hospital today. It is not the global financial position that has caused such turmoil in education sectors where children are educated in overcrowded classes. It is not the global financial turmoil that has caused us to have the highest government costs in the eurozone in transport, communications and energy. This all boils down to the Government and its management, or mismanagement, of the economy, with these effects on the people.

The Taoiseach will come to the House with the Minister for Finance, who is misfortunate, as he said, in being in this position at this time, and we are expected, after the softening up process over the past three weeks, to understand that the people's choice was to bring us to this point where in the next couple of hours we will have to listen to what many consider to be a financial Armageddon. In respect of acceptance of responsibility and of some modicum of blame for what has happened here, is the Taoiseach big enough to accept that to put massive current spending programmes on the back of an unsustainable property bubble was a serious mistake? Unfortunately, because of this the people will have to pay for it, left, right and centre, over the next nine months.

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