Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)

The State's finances are in a critical position. The public relations spin from the Government in the past six months is that this is a global recession. Current economic circumstances in Ireland, however, have been caused by the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats-Green Party Governments of the past ten years. They squandered taxpayers' money, leaving a shortfall of €2 billion in balancing the books. It will be worse in the next three years with annual savings of €4 billion being required. Bad as it is now, it will be twice as bad in the next three years, whichever party is in government. The sad part is that this was predicted two years ago by many economists, yet the Government kept its eyes shut, pretending everything was okay because it wanted to win the general election and cling to power. Perhaps it is a little sorry now because if it had taken the necessary steps two years ago, we would not be in these sorry circumstances and the remedial measures would not be so severe. The saddest spectacle was this morning in the Dáil after the Leader of the Opposition, Deputy Kenny, and the leader of the Labour Party, Deputy Gilmore, had offered in a constructive manner to sit down with the Government to work out a solution. The party leaders acted in the national interest and it was sad and regrettable to see the Taoiseach rejecting their offer. The Deputies opposite asked what proposals we had but we have not had an opportunity to put forward any to find an all-party solution to the problem; the advance made this morning was clearly rejected.

There is a belief in the media that people are ready to take hard decisions. People may be ready to play their part but only if the burden is shared equally. By no means does the Government do this. The hardest hit by these proposals are wage earners in the €30,000 to €50,000 bracket; they were hit first by the 1% levy and have now been affected by the new proposals. At the same time, the Government has bailed out the banks which are partly responsible for our dilemma to the tune of €8 billion. However, it has not capped the truly extravagant and outlandish salaries, bonuses and expenses of the top earners. Will the Minister indicate if any bonuses have been paid to bank staff or other managers in local government or the HSE since the guarantee scheme was put in place? President Obama has set a cap of €370,000 in America. The chief executive of Bank of Ireland, Mr. Brian Goggin, earns €4 million a year or €59,600 a week; Mr. David Drum of Anglo Irish Bank earned €3.2 million per year or €46,173 per week; Mr. Eugene Sheehy of AIB earns €2.1 million or €30,288 per week; Mr. Michael Fingleton of Irish Nationwide earns €2.3 million per year or €42,307 per week; Mr. Denis Casey of Permanent TSB earns €1.3 million or €25,000 per week. Even with a reduction of 25% in salary which was suggested today, they would still be earning millions a year, or more in one week than most earn in a year.

The unfairness of it all is the reason people refuse to accept the proposals. They are waiting for their chance in the next election no matter what Deputies on the opposite side of the House say, whether that election is held in June or beforehand. The Government has much to answer for.

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