Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

It wanted to hang tough. The Government did not do anything at the time, which was before the bank crisis. The amount that would have been involved in the Waterford Crystal guarantee was approximately €40 million. An iconic Irish industry has pretty much gone down the tubes. The people of Waterford are happy that it will be restarted in a small way with a tourism facility. They understand that something is better than nothing. The banks that are being looked after today will get between €80 billion and €90 billion. There is a poverty of ideas about how to maintain the real jobs, in companies like SR Technics, Dell and Waterford Crystal, which keep families at work. People will be hurting tomorrow as a result of today's budget, which was supposed to turn this economy around, reform the system and bring fairness to it. Tax exiles and those with pension pots worth €20 million will sleep easy tonight because they will not be affected by this budget. At the same time, many ordinary families will be counting the large cost of this budget to them. The pain caused by this budget, which the Government has deemed necessary to bail out the banks, will last for a long time. Shame on the Government.

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