Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

We must be honest with ourselves. We can come in here and speak rhetoric but if the public finances are not addressed quickly they will run into difficulty.

It is also appropriate that we examine some of the Opposition proposals. Reference was made by the leaders of the parties opposite that they are willing to engage and put forward positive proposals. However, on the one hand we have a view from Fine Gael on how we address the issue, on the other hand we have views from the Labour Party and they are not compatible with what we are trying to achieve.

The Labour Party attacked the Government for not giving the social partners enough time to discuss the challenges confronting us. In the House the Labour Party accused us of not engaging with the social partners. In the same debate, the leader of the Fine Gael Party accused us of dragging our heels and discussing for too long a time with the social partners. We built a social partnership model which has served this country well since 1987. It does not behove anybody to try to pull this model down when it has shown that it has the capacity to deal with challenging issues.

It is regrettable that the unions and the ICTU could not come on board in the final hours of the discussions with the Government to address the problems with regard to funding the public pay bill. In fairness, they did engage and acknowledged that major problems exist and €2 billion had to be found. They agreed a framework but they could not come to the table on where the pain would be felt. Some of the commentary here is not doing the debate justice.

With regard to what we are trying to achieve on unemployment, we have increased the capacity of labour activation programmes. Fifty-one extra training places will be provided to allow those who become unemployed to receive some training. Thus, they will at least be engaged and making progress while unemployed. We will be trying to achieve this in the coming months. During the downturn in the 1980s, when people were just given social welfare and unemployment benefits, there was no engagement with training programmes or education courses, thus creating a considerable social problem. We must ensure there is continual engagement with those who are unfortunate enough to find themselves unemployed. As the Minister and Taoiseach said, the economic difficulties will continue to confront us throughout 2009. We fill face considerable challenges associated with job shedding in the broader economy. We are very conscious of this and will try to provide as many training places as possible. However, training alone will not address all the problems confronting those on social welfare.

Reference was made to the cost of living. There seems to be a view in circulation that nobody has benefited from the decrease in the cost of living due to deflationary pressures. Interest rates have decreased substantially, while the cost of fuel is decreasing. Our energy policy must be considered in this regard. Energy costs will comprise a fundamental issue in the coming weeks. All surveys show that energy provision is of fundamental importance to the country, an issue on which Deputy Coveney has been very forceful. Foreign direct investors express concern about the cost of energy when considering Ireland as a location in which to invest. If the Government, the Dáil and the people do not take collective responsibility to deal with these challenges, they will send a very dangerous signal.

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