P J Sheehan (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

I have seen it all now. Has Fianna Fáil learned nothing from the history of the State? Did the Taoiseach not state that he wanted to set Seán Lemass as his role model and follow his dynamic leadership in building a new Ireland and in making brave decisions for the good of all Irish people? These were his words only a few months ago when he assumed the office of Taoiseach. I now know that he wanted to follow the proven failures of de Valera, his economic or other policies that have proved to be failures over the course of time. Instead of dancing at the crossroads, we now have singing at the crossroads. Was it a coincidence that budget day was the late Eamon de Valera's birthday? The Government has gone back in time to make the same mistakes. Will Fianna Fáil never learn?

Let me remind the Taoiseach of who is responsible for handing his colleague the misfortune of becoming the Minister for Finance. One of de Valera's adversaries, Winston Churchill, once stated: "We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle".

In 1997, Fianna Fáil was left a strong, sound economy. When we handed over the reins of government, the volume of exports was growing at 17%, but it has collapsed to just 6%. Under our Government, productivity was growing at 8% per annum, but it has collapsed to just 2%. Then, our market share increased by 25% in four years, but this Government has cut it by 20% in four years. To use one of Fianna Fáil's phrases, one could say that the economy was slowly roasting on the barbecue. Fianna Fáil took it, shoved it into the microwave and turned it up to turbo power. When the party saw the steam leaking out from the top, bottom and all sides, it watched in amazement and did nothing, but assured us at the same time that we would have a soft centre. Now Fianna Fáil wonders why it must clean up the explosion of debris on all sides of its cooking experiment. It is blaming the whole world, but not its little version of coward economics.

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