Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

It would not be a good idea to try to have an interview with them, in any event.

Let us examine the other reasons the Government backbenchers might have cheered. What about the mothers of children who are to have their child benefit removed when their children reach 18 years of age? This is at a time when education is under pressure and, although higher education grants remain the same, registration fees have gone up. Income thresholds have not been lifted sufficiently to cater for the situations that now arise. Therefore, it could not have been the mothers of children or the children on whose behalf the Government backbenchers reacted with such enthusiasm.

I was amazed, and I could see the incredulity on the face of the Ceann Comhairle because I am sure he, too, never saw anything like that in his time in the House. It was definitely the first time. As was said long ago in a poem: "Even the ranks of Tuscany could scarce forbear to cheer". I just do not know why they cheered. All I can conclude is that the Government backbenchers were delirious at the time. They were completely taken over by a kind of euphoria, an upsurge and a welling up in their hearts and minds, because it was a great day.

However, nothing could have been further from the truth. As I said the other evening, these events did not start during the past week, month, six months or the past two or three years. They began during the past eight years. Do we remember all the things that were said to us and about us? We were told the fundamentals were good and if anybody suggested that the economy was going wrong, that person was wrong, hysterical and scaremongering. That person was unpatriotic and talking down the economy.

What was happening across the floor of the House? Why did somebody on that side not ask the obvious question about whether everything was really going all right? Was it right to have 120% and 130% mortgages for first-time buyers or for any buyer? Was it right to have the degree of investment and speculation in the construction industry that was clearly taking place? Why was benchmarking introduced all those years ago? The answer is simple — the pay agreement entered into a year or 18 months before had gone done the tubes. The cost of living had caught up with everybody and the only thing to do was to find some way of getting some money to assuage the general unease in the minds and hearts of the public at that particular time. It was an appalling decision but it was not the decision itself that was wrong, but the reasons for which it had to be taken. Those reasons should have been questioned at that time but were not.

Members on the Opposition benches raised those issues but were told that we were scaremongering, that we had no imagination, that this was a new type of economic thinking and that all was bound to be fine. Were we not the strongest and richest country in the world and one of the most influential? What a load of rubbish that was. Surely we can cop ourselves on and not go on with this type of delusional nonsense in the future.

As to those Government backbenchers who rose up last week, as if in rebellion, and applauded and stomped their feet loudly to the tune of the conclusion of the budget speech, I presume they were not taking responsibility for what had happened. However, somebody, somewhere, must take that responsibility. It is important in the country's interests that somebody takes that responsibility and does so soon. It is no good if the Government barracks the Opposition and complains that its members are not realistic, or if it suggests that the Opposition has been at fault in some way. The Opposition's job is, as always, to challenge the Government, to prosecute it and to make sure that we stand up for the people outside the House and raise their concerns and questions even before they are raised in the public arena. That is the important thing, as the Ceann Comhairle will know well.

It was very sad that nobody wanted to take responsibility. Everything in the garden was rosy and there was nothing but the smell of roses in the air as the Government and the country careered in a particular direction. From my knowledge, and from my time in this House, I cannot believe that we have got to where we are nor the means by which we got here without any recognition on the other side of the House as to what was happening. The problem is of so great a magnitude.

The other thing that annoys me, as I am sure it annoys the Ceann Comhairle and other Members of the House, is the suggestion that the problem was imported, that international currency fluctuations caused it all. This is not the case because 95% of the problem originated in this country and was within the ambit of Government, the Financial Regulator, the banking system and the Central Bank to control. It was well within their reach had they wished to control it, but nobody wanted to. It was as if there would be no tomorrow, as if everybody said: "This is great, we are going to have a really great time." The feel good factor began to break out all over, but that did not last.

At this juncture, as we review the likely impact of this budget on the economy and as Deputies Enda Kenny, Richard Bruton, Eamon Gilmore and others suggest, it looks as if this is only a temporary bandage put on the economy to stop it from rolling over the cliff. All the impositions on the public are there merely to punish the people but the question is, for what are they being punished? They were not responsible for what has happened but they are about to be punished. Unfortunately, ordinary members of the public are about to be punished left, right and centre for the actions of the Government and the banking system. Despite having had no hand, act or part in the fiasco, they will carry responsibility for wrongdoing in the banking sector.

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