Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

One lesson which should be learned is that there is a misguided obsession with the budget deficit that can compound the very disease it wishes to control. Deficits can melt away like the snow when the economic spring comes and this can happen remarkably fast. The core issue is to combine prudent budgeting with economic stimulus so the actions we take to get the books to balance do not worsen the problem.

Much of what the Labour Party has emphasised in recent weeks refers to job training and job retention. We endorse the idea of a national bond, as first suggested by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and later by the construction industry. I was disappointed that the Minister, Deputy Lenihan, made no more than a passing reference to it because there is an appetite among savers for secure, State-backed investments. Even yesterday's Financial Times mentioned the fact that the German Government is hatching a similar plan to tap into people's savings and into the capital of pension funds to finance important projects that can sustain jobs and prepare the country for long-term recovery.

There is also scope, surely, to seek support for such a bond among Irish people in the US and elsewhere, who are our own diaspora. We have a gap in our funding capacity to build schools and hospitals and this could go some way towards meeting this need. There must be a stimulus element in today's budget. It cannot be all cuts and tax increases because that will mean only more job losses.

The Americans have a phrase, "shovel-ready projects", which they use to describe construction projects that are labour-intensive, such as public transport projects, and that are already well advanced in terms of planning but cannot be funded in the normal way due to the public financial crisis. The Minister does have access to another possible source of funds for these projects, but he is staying strangely silent about it. I refer to the €1 billion that is to be paid in fees this year and next year by the six financial institutions that were guaranteed by the State last 29 September. This is kept in reserve in a special account in the Central Bank. It is sitting there, and I hope it is not being kept for the next general election campaign. Why is this money not being made available now for job training initiatives-----

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