Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)

I am also reminded of another political stunt by a Fianna Fáil Minister in 2003, the so-called decentralisation programme. A total of 54 centres were designated and thousands of civil servants were to be transferred throughout the State. The programme was due to be completed in 2006. Three centres were selected in County Donegal with 250 civil servants to be decentralised to Donegal town and a few hundred to Buncrana while Foras na Gaeilge was due to move to my parish of Gweedore. Not a solitary civil servant has been transferred to Donegal.

This is a crisis budget, which was brought on by the actions of the Government, bankers and developers. There is an international financial crisis but we are experiencing a home-grown economic crisis. No matter what happens in America or England, we have our own difficulties. A total of 70,000 additional people are unemployed since the day the Government took up office in 2007. That is happening in Ireland, not America, because the Government financed a construction bubble. Every worthwhile economist in the country knew this. For the past three or four years, Deputy Bruton warned the bubble would burst and when it did, there would be economic and financial chaos. That is why a crisis budget was announced last week and it has unravelled over the past few days before our eyes.

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