Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

In County Clare alone, the Ennis by-pass was built as well as the N18 to Shannon Airport. There were improvements to the N18 from Limerick through to Bearfield. The next phase of the work will bypass Bearfield, Crusheen and Gort to connect with Galway. Significant sums of money have been spent upgrading the infrastructure in the airport. Money has been spent on water and sewerage schemes in Liscannor, Feakle, Quilty, Tuamgraney and so on. That is where the investment has gone. That is not blowing the money. I am not suggesting Deputy Quinn said that but others have done so. That is investing for the future.

People have said we did nothing when we had surpluses and we did not squirrel the money away. Investing in infrastructure is squirrelling it away. It is putting in place the capacity for this country to continue to develop into the future. I do not believe that is a waste nor do I believe it was a waste for us to put significant funding into some of the smaller rural schools to maintain population in those areas. I do not want to list them but there are many. However, there is still work to be done. Ennis boys' national school needs to be completed and I hope the Minister will be able to accommodate that next year. School upgrades are needed in Bearfield and Quin and I hope that can be done. Many schools throughout County Clare have been upgraded.

The Department of Health and Children has provided funding for day care centres. It has been suggested that we do not look after the elderly. We got it wrong in regard to the medical cards, we apologised and we are putting that right. Funding has gone into day care centres to allow people to remain in their homes and yet have contact with health care professionals and people in their community. It allows them to have a quality of life in their latter years.

Today the Minister for Health and Children gave €70,000 to a community group in my area to provide a bus to bring people from isolated areas to a centre five days a week. That is investment and if that is blowing money, I am missing something in terms of my capacity to represent the people who elected me to this House.

Clearly, there are fewer resources and we need to make some difficult choices. We must target the resources at those most in need. There was a time when it was possible for an element of luxury in terms of what we did because the resources were there but, unfortunately, that is no longer the case. Perhaps the public is not as focused on that as it will be in the coming months.

Many people in society — the number will increase — depend solely on the State to survive and we need to focus on them. The State must be in a position to help them.

No economist forecast that this downturn would come about. The market dislocation which took place in the United States, initially through the sub-prime crisis, instilled fear and created uncertainty. Anyone who has any understanding of the financial markets knows that fear and uncertainty are the principal drivers for a market collapse, which is what we have seen. There are companies whose asset base far outweighs their market capitalisation at present.

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