Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

If it were not so serious, it would be laughable to listen to one Government speaker after another ask us to put party politics behind us and to support their budget. They did not give us any information. When my colleague Deputy Bruton wrote to the Minister asking for information in order that we could make helpful suggestions on the budget, he did not even get the courtesy of a reply, much less the kind of information we would need to make any kind of meaningful input. We did not get projections for revenue over the year or specific or general information about the kind of options available. That is not to say the Government does not need our help. After all, this is the fourth budget in 12 months. It certainly does need our help. This is the Government's last chance. It has barely seven months to implement the kind of measures that will stabilise the national finances. The Government needs our help because this time it must get it right. This is its third attempt in the past six months and it must get it right this time.

The markets demand that the Government gets it right. They have seen the blind eye turned to our banking regulation. Some people call it soft touch, others call it blind-eye regulation. They have seen our bankers' disregard for shareholders and depositors, for any kind of prudential behaviour, and for legal, not to mention moral, considerations. They have seen our economic instability, the yawning gap the Government has allowed emerge between revenue and expenditure, and they have seen the Government's bank guarantee. They must now be asking how a Government, on its third budget in six months, its fourth in 12 months, could make good that guarantee if it were called upon to do so. The markets have seen the money already committed to the banks, not just in the guarantee but in the nationalisation and in the recapitalisation, and they must wonder at the Government's ability to meet all of those debts when already the yield on Government bonds is twice that in Germany. This gives us an indication of the view of international markets of the Government's credit worthiness. That view of Ireland is what this budget must change. We are in the last chance saloon and the Government must show its determination to stabilise borrowing, at least, in this budget, and to do so at a time when, unfortunately, the Exchequer is already on its knees in terms of funding.

When every other country is implementing stimulus packages — some are taking breathtaking decisions in that regard — we, because of the mismanagement of funds, are planning to take billions out of our economy — €6 billion, if we are to believe the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Smith. When demand is down, when consumers have finally zipped up their wallets and discretionary spending has virtually ceased and when confidence is on the ground, although we know the normal response in such circumstances is that Government fiscal policy should lean against the business cycle, we must do the exact opposite simply because of the bad management of finances.

Nobody on this side of the House denies that the challenge is enormous. It will be difficult to strike a balance between the interventions needed to sustain demand and jobs, on the one hand, and allowing the necessary structural adjustments to take place so that real recovery and new jobs can begin to be formed, on the other. It will be difficult to strike a balance between reducing the revenue gap and at the same time incentivise economic activity.

The misery and the pain is inevitable for everybody, not just for the 100,000 people who have lost their jobs in the past 12 months but for all of those who are still lucky enough to be in employment. The only question is whether it will be short and sharp, or measured in decades. That will be the effective outcome of this budget. That is what this budget will decide.

Short-term but time-limited measures, such as PRSI holidays for distressed companies to keep people in employment, are vital. Also vital are reforms of how the Government does its business, of how it regulates the private sector, and of how it has protected monopolies and special interests. All those long-term structural changes must come as part of this budget in tandem with the taxes and the short-term measures, or we will simply prolong the misery for everybody, and that will be this Government's legacy.

In the absence of specific information about what the options are, how much they would cost and how much money we will have available, I want to make some general remarks about specific issues. Several Deputies spoke about the need to sustain jobs, and specifically about the building industry. We heard today — although the Deputies who spoke obviously have not heard — that all public projects that have not been contracted for are on hold or stopped. What is the sense of this move which will effectively wipe out the entire building industry, all its suppliers and all of the 280,000 jobs which are left in it? Home building is gone and will remain so for a number of years. No matter what people say, the reality is the overhang in inventory is enormous. There is negative equity for many people. That sector will not be revitalised any time soon and it is up to the Government to ensure that infrastructural work continues and some of that slack is taken up. The truth is it was the absence of infrastructure that pushed up costs during the years of the Celtic tiger and the Government will make the same mistake again in failing to create the conditions for future growth at a time when tender prices will never be as low.

The industry has made the point that the real cost of providing finance for these projects is just a fraction of the nominal cost when taxes forgone and social welfare payments are taken into account. In the roads programme, which is only one aspect of infrastructure, we will lose the expertise that has been amassed and the momentum that has been gained. We will perhaps lose it forever because architects, engineers and all of those with skill sets honed over the past number of years are disappearing out of the country every day. The reality is we will be left with the fixed costs. For example, we will have all the engineers in every local authority around the country and we will have the NRA staff. One may say what one likes about what is happening in many local areas, but the NRA has been one of the most efficient agencies in the country and it has delivered what it set out to do. It will be left now with nothing to do.

The schools that need to be built and all of the other infrastructure that needs to be built can be done now at a fraction of the cost when the economy is growing again. Deputy O'Brien stated there is €600 million to be spent on schools. That is not the case; it has been put on hold. It has been stopped. Those projects are not contracted for. They are stopped. Deputy Blaney spoke about the roads programme. It is stopped. There is no roads programme. That is the reality.

The industry has suggested the reform of the public private partnership because it simply is not working. It is convoluted, bureaucratic and expensive, but it offers an opportunity to provide infrastructure by taking it off balance sheet, although perhaps not for the roads programme because all of the tolled roads have been built. There is not an opportunity for tolls in the future, but there is certainly an opportunity for commercial undertakings. There is certainly an opportunity to postpone expenditure if we opt for the design, finance and build. That must be considered if we are to save some of the jobs. Turning off the tap completely is lunacy for a Government which must be concerned about maintaining jobs.

The motor trade has had many good years but businesses are one-by-one going to the wall, with all the loss of jobs that entails. I do not want any special deal for them but I want the Government to examine, as requested, the nonsense of the claw-back system on VAT whereby they pay VAT on their losses. That is an oxymoron and makes no sense.

I want the Government to spend money in one other area, that of the Protestant faith schools. As the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh is aware, the decision to cut their funding reneges on a 40 year decision and I ask the Government to examine it. The outcome is that many Protestant children will no longer be able to avail of a Protestant education. We already know that in September children will be taken out of schools because their parents cannot support the fees without that grant. It is not an exaggeration to say this measure, notwithstanding that it is a very small amount of money, will devastate the Protestant community. I do not say it will impact on Protestant faith numbers in the short term but fragmenting their community in this way will create such a long-term effect. I ask the Government to take the opportunity of this budget to reverse that decision, which it will regret.

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