Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Deputy Kennedy asked the Labour Party to acknowledge that we have a major problem. I have no difficulty at all acknowledging as much and the Labour Party has drawn attention to the fact that we have a major problem going back many months while the Government was in denial. Apart from drawing attention to the fact the Government has taken on board ideas advanced by Deputy Gilmore, for example, in his speech to our party conference last November such as the insulation of homes and the refurbishment and rebuilding of schools, the Labour Party over a number of years — it is on the record of the House — pleaded with the then Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, to intervene in the cost of building land and advocated many of the proposals in the Kenny report. At the same time I argued that case with him, my colleague, Deputy Burton, highlighted the extension and continuation of tax incentives to maintain the property bubble while the economy was in boom, but we were ignored. It is that ignoring of the obvious in terms of economics that has worsened the crisis we face. The property bubble, facilitated and encouraged by Fianna Fáil, in particular, has led to the worsening and deepening of the crisis we are in.

When I am challenged by Deputy Kennedy to say the Labour Party acknowledges we have a problem, I most emphatically do, and if the views of the party had been followed, we would not be in quite the degree of mess we are in. I accept the Deputy's bona fides, although I have some difficulty with anybody who sees politics through a prism or believes that President Obama last night followed the lead of the Taoiseach in the matter of bankers' pay.

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