James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

The Taoiseach owes the people of Ireland an apology for the role he played as Minister for Finance in bringing this country to its knees. In a ghastly mirror image of the Irish situation, the British Prime Minister is being held to account for his misguided strategies as Chancellor of the Exchequer and, like the Irish people, the British now are bearing the brunt of this mismanagement. At least the Prime Minister's colleagues have the decency to ask him to apologise. Can Members expect the same from Fianna Fáil? I think not, particularly in light of the standing ovation they gave to him and to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, for his disastrous budget of 2009.

Members have seen how President Barack Obama's presumed feelings for a fellow Offaly man were slow to translate into an invitation to the White House for St. Patrick's Day. The fear of contamination is real and the perceived carrier of the virus may no longer be top of the invitation list in certain circles. After all, with a popularity rating of a mere 10% for his party in his own country, why should such a leader be particularly welcome elsewhere?

Had the wealth of the Celtic tiger, which was in the hands of the Fianna Fáil Government, been properly managed, Ireland would have been in a strong position to cope with the fall-out from global recession. However, as Members have seen repeatedly, as one Government fiasco after another is highlighted, the money was squandered and we were left unprepared and unable to withstand the pressures of the global downturn. The Government is in meltdown, unable to cope with the insolvency crisis in the banks, with 90% of deposits leveraged to the building industry. While the banks are bailed out, people are losing their jobs at a unprecedented level and low and middle-income earners are forced into insolvency. The collapse of lending standards has left thousands of young people with enormous personal debt. In some cases, their earnings are only a portion of their mortgage liabilities.

The wholesale destruction of our economic future is the outcome of the greed of chief executive officers in the corporate, banking, brokerage and real estate sectors. Primarily, however, this destruction is the result of actions taken by the Government. As Minister for Finance, the Taoiseach, in particular, failed to take the radical decisions necessary to protect our people and our economy. Fianna Fáil and the Green Party were so unprepared that they sat back and denied there was a recession. Meanwhile, the recession they failed to acknowledge continues to worsen while the Government frantically plays catch-up at the expense of the taxpayer and the public service. With the live register increasing to 330,000 and the prospect of it reaching 400,000 by the end of the year, the future is bleak. I meet frightened people on a daily basis who have been made redundant and are now falling into mortgage arrears. I urge the banks to work with home owners who are left unable to meet their mortgage commitments. The banks must take a more humane approach and forget about repossession orders or legal proceedings.

Farmers and businesses have been plunged into a cash-flow crisis because of the actions of the Government. It makes no sense for the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to deny farmers what they are owed at a time when the Government is ploughing €7 billion into the banks. The reality is that the Government was and always will be in bed with the banks, property developers and construction industry. Ordinary people are left to clear up the mess, while corruption among the wealthy is rife.

It was reported in Monday's newspapers that the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, remarked at the weekend that if the Government had foreseen the economic downturn it would have acted differently, but there is no point "in beating ourselves up about it". Neither the Minister nor his Cabinet colleagues are "beating themselves up". Instead, they are targeting the young, the old and the most vulnerable in order to make good their mismanagement and lack of foresight. Why did the Government not foresee the downturn? We on this side of the House saw what was happening and predicted the consequences of the Government's mismanagement of the economy in recent years. How are we to have confidence in a Government that is prepared to dip its hands into the money earmarked for public sector pensions, education, services for people with special needs, health, medical cards for the over 70s and so on? In short, the Government has struck anywhere it senses vulnerability. Meanwhile, the wealthy are protected and the bankers who caused the collapse are rewarded with obscene pay-offs and bonuses.

The Government caused the downturn in public finances. It turned a blind eye to excesses in the public sector such as those associated with the Health Service Executive. It also ignored the excesses among its own ranks, such as the appointment of additional Ministers of State and the establishment of new Oireachtas committees. We had overpaid chiefs at the expense of underpaid Indians. The February figures show an escalation in the deterioration of the Exchequer. The Government is now floundering in its response to the banking crisis.

Retrospectively bringing in legislation to deal with the raiding of the public service pension fund is only a small reaction to the problems that beset the country. The creeping and insidious targeting of lower and middle-income earners by means of an income levy, pensions levy and now a pending income tax hike is nothing less than immoral. I call on the Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach to lay off those least able to cope with financial demands and finally, once and for all, to target those at the upper end of the economy who creamed off the wealth during the Celtic tiger years. What justification is there for hitting those who never saw any gain from the boom years but are now expected to pick up the tab for the Government's mistakes?

This grossly unfair Bill brings the House into disrepute. It is a retrospective move to legalise extortion from the public sector. Fine Gael will oppose it in the House today. The Government is attacking the most vulnerable in our society, including the elderly and the young. Its behaviour in the two years since it was re-elected has been shameful. We are coping not only with a recession but with a full-blown depression. This has arisen because of the behaviour of Fianna Fáil, which has been in government for 20 of the past 22 years. We will remind the public at every opportunity of this reality.

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