Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

Listening to Deputy Sherlock speak and recalling how the Government tried to wrap the green flag around itself one is reminded that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." This Government has behaved like a scoundrel. Over the past couple of days we have had an example of what happens when the entire future of a country is invested in a pyramid scheme. The Government invested everybody's hopes, aspirations and financial future in a housing bubble. Like every other pyramid scheme, that bubble collapsed, leaving ordinary people, as with every financial rip-off, carrying the can. I would like to talk about some of those people, but before I do that I will digress.

A couple of years ago I heard an old Chinese fable and I could not make sense of it until the past couple of days. It is about a scorpion during a flood seeking a lift across a river from a frog. The frog refuses, saying if he lets the scorpion on to his back the scorpion will sting and kill him. The scorpion replies that if he does that they will both drown in the river. The frog sees the logic, allows the scorpion on to his back and sets off across the river. Half way across the scorpion stings the frog and they both begin to drown. When the frog asks the scorpion why he did it, the scorpion replies that it is in his nature and he cannot help it. Such is the type of Government we get from Fianna Fáil. It is in the party's nature and it cannot help it. Fianna Fáil cannot help ripping off the small guy and looking after the developers. While the Galway Races tent is packed up in a Barna shed somewhere, the mentality is still alive.

The Government told the public it was mending the roof and the country. That is easy to do when the sun is shining. When it started to rain we found out it was doing nothing. I looked at the Visitors Gallery today and saw 18 year old children. For the past 18 years those children have been coming here and they would have seen a remarkable change in our country. Where are they? A child born in 1989 is no better off in 2008 because, as Deputy Shortall pointed out today, developments such as third level education are being undermined. The children's allowance that allows children to continue in the education system has been taken away. Even illness benefit for a child is not paid until he or she is 18 years old. Undermining, undermining, undermining. One must ask why, when there is a downturn in the economy, one which was signalled for a number of years, the most vulnerable and the weakest are the first to be hit. How does it make sense that taking a medical card from a 70 year old or an 80 year old will give somebody a job sooner? It will not provide a single job.

Before the budget, the Labour Party gave the Government a road map because this budget has no strategy. We needed a budget that would create a job strategy with managing public finances. This budget has done neither. We should have got a very clear strategy that would have given the public confidence that there is a way out of the morass it caused. The Government can blame international finances until the cows come home, but with its buddies it created this property bubble, and it has fallen on top of all of us. The Government could have redirected or restimulated the housing sector and the Labour Party put forward many options. It could have provided educational and training options for people who are losing their jobs. It could have made the social welfare system more flexible so that people are not waiting for 12 or 18 months to requalify to return to employment options.

Last Saturday morning I heard the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, trying to pretend he is Roosevelt, talking about a "new deal" and saying we have nothing to fear but fear itself. To use a Roosevelt term, he has pulled the social contract out from under people in this country. People who have been paying social welfare contributions find from this morning they have to pay twice the contributions they paid yesterday and they are entitled to only half the benefit. For the past ten years we have had developer-led Government. What we need is Government-led development. That is an entirely different concept. Like the scorpion on the frog's back, we will never get Government-led development from Fianna Fáil.

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