John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)

I would like to admit from the outset that I do not have anything constructive to say about the public finances. I wish to make it clear that my comments are intended to be totally partisan and completely political. I propose to examine the consequences of Fianna Fáil's participation in government. I intend to set out the practical costs it will have for families in my constituency of Waterford, and elsewhere in the country, over the next 30 years. The scale of the debt that has been built up during Fianna Fáil's 12 years in government is beginning to manifest itself. It is becoming clearly evident that generations of Irish people will be weighed down by such debt. Even if the State acquires the bad bank loans at a 40% discount - if it gets loans with a book value of €90 billion for €50 billion - we will be looking at a doubling of the national debt to over €100 billion.

Regardless of the level of industry that is demonstrated by Irish businesses and individuals in the years ahead, the debt that is being taken on by Irish taxpayers will have to be paid by Irish families for decades to come. It will not matter how ingenious our national and international transactions are, or how good IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland are. Fianna Fáil has turned Ireland into a nation of chronic debtors. I listened to the Taoiseach earlier when he expressed indignation at the suggestion that Fianna Fáil is responsible for this situation because of its relationship with developers. It was an interesting delusion.

My first experience of Fianna Fáil and planning and development happened in Dublin Airport about nine years ago. I sat with two earnest Fianna Fáil councillors who said to me, with straight faces, that taking money was the way of the world and I should accept it. It opened my eyes. I began to see the relationships between Fianna Fáil, developers and council officials within my own constituency. I began to become vocal about it. Apart from the abuse, intimidation and the threats - one of which occurred on the floor of this Chamber - I found this was a very unpopular action because one was questioning a system based on greed, on which hundreds of people feed. It works like this - the Fianna Fáil councillors protected and fed from the local authority officials who, in turn, fed off the developers. If one questioned the behaviour and activities of that golden circle, one was, and still is, branded as a person who is against jobs and development, who is consumed with negativity, and so forth.

What I know now, and perhaps did not understand fully then, is that I was jeopardising an ingrained relationship that existed between Fianna Fáil, council officials and developers. Many among the public knew about this relationship because it was quite open. For some of these people, especially for the Fianna Fáil politically minded, it was acceptable. As long as the wealth and perceived benefits continued there was no major concern about such relationships in Fianna Fáil quarters. We now realise the cost these relationships have had, and will continue to have, on Irish families. Irish families will pay for decades for the stupidity, the greed, the excess and the potentially criminal behaviour of which Fianna Fáil was part and parcel. In my constituency it was a willing, complicit participant and beneficiary.

As far as the €90 billion in bad assets is concerned, and because the Irish taxpayer is now responsible for it, I want to know the names and the amounts involved. I want the national asset management agency to release that information. I want the taxpayer to know who they have to thank for saddling their children with debt for decades.

Today some of my colleagues expressed the opinion that the Government should display humility, honesty and a sense of responsibility. I am not really bothered about that. Fianna Fáil's pathetic whimpering about a national Government is embarrassing. It should get on with its job. Considering the damage it caused to Ireland's economy and its citizens for the next couple of decades, Fianna Fáil deserves everything it will get in the local elections and in the next general election. As far as the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, is concerned, I would prefer if he spared us the speeches on patriotism, fairness and national Government. Fianna Fáil has denigrated politics to an extent I never thought possible. It has broken this country and it deserves everything it will get. It deserves to be wiped out politically.

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