Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

Like my colleague, Deputy Deasy, I offer no apologies for the comments I shall make, or for laying the blame for the current economic crisis and devastation firmly at the foot of the Government.

I shall address one aspect of this supplementary budget. The budget is the spawn of a failed and flawed social partnership system that has strangled competitiveness and dynamism in this economy. I am tired of the nod and wink culture, the golden circle, the cosy cartel which pulls the strings of Government from behind closed doors. It is a cosy arrangement between unions, employers and, no surprise, the Fianna Fáil Party, and has had unwarranted influence over Government policy for the past 12 years. This has led to our current spending growing out of all control and to the type of irresponsible budget which was laid before the House yesterday.

I wonder at a Government that sees this country on the precipice of spiralling unemployment and the destruction of small and medium-sized businesses. This Government is still beholden to the social partners and vested interests in our society. The budget ignores the reality of the problem, namely, that we face a deficit of €20 billion. Deputy Deasy referred very well to the level of national debt for which not only my generation but two or three generations to come will suffer the consequences. However, we have seen no meaningful approach to curbing public spending. This is extraordinary. A budget was laid before this House yesterday which bases two thirds of its savings on tax increases that will cripple small businesses and are unbearable for all those who struggle to provide for their families. It made negligible effort to tackle the lack of efficiency in the public sector and made a ham-fisted attempt to curb public spending.

I find it bizarre that organisations such as IBEC had the audacity to welcome this budget as providing a plan to get the country out of recession. Was there such a plan? I am sorry but I must have missed something. There is nothing in this budget designed to stimulate the economy. There is nothing in it to create jobs or to assist the SMEs up and down the country, in rural Ireland and in our cities. In my own constituency, Dublin South East, one can walk down any street and see the "For Let" and "For Sale" signs and the businesses that have been forced to close. What about all the companies that were teetering on the brink, struggling for the past eight or 12 months to hang on to the few employees they have? How are those businesses expected to stay afloat and keep those people in employment?

There was no relief for PRSI nor any measures in respect of VAT. I must compliment ISME on having the courage to come out and tell it as it is. There were increases on excise duties on diesel and in insurance levies, all of which impact directly on small companies around this country struggling to stay afloat. It is quite extraordinary. I would love to know who these organisations represent. They meet with the Minister of State, Deputy Ahern, and with the Taoiseach, and hammer out deals to keep everybody happy and everything kosher. They ensure that the Government buys a bit of time. Who do they represent? They do not represent the people who get on the telephone to me and my colleagues, concerned about letting go the workers they have barely managed to keep in employment over the past six months.

This is a punitive budget. Nobody has realised quite how serious it is in terms of the impact it will have on our economy. It is a deflationary budget. Nobody will be in a position to spend because everybody is terrified now. Everybody is hit by increased taxes, the health levy, the income levy and the cut to the early child care supplement. All these measures will impact on people's ability to spend. If they cannot spend, they will not buy products, use services, eat in restaurants and so on and we will be in a serious position in a short period. I shudder to think what will be the effects of this on ordinary people and businesses in particular, which are the lifeblood of our economy. By failing to address the massive and disproportionate expenditure on the public sector, the Government has failed to tackled the budget deficit in the responsible way it should. Cuts must be made in every Department and it is the only way the Government will get a handle on the public finances.

Any economist could tell the Minster for Finance that he cannot tax his way out of a recession because that makes the economy less competitive, people's ability to spend is reduced and small businesses are crippled. How can this message have evaded the Government for a fourth time? This is the fourth attempt since last September the Government has made to get a handle on the budget deficit but we still experience absolute denial on its part. This is extraordinary, given the projections provided by the Minister for Finance yesterday. Budgetary projections for 2009-13 provide for increases in gross and net current expenditure of approximately €5 billion a year while taxes will increase simultaneously. The Government is denying whatever ability people may have had potentially, through an imaginative budget outlining a jobs stimulus and a programme to get people back into the workforce. Instead the Government parties are creating a dead economy where more people will be forced on to the live register and queues will lengthen as the weeks and months pass with no solution provided to them.

I echo Deputy Deasy's comments about this pathetic, whimpering Government coming to the Opposition with a begging cap to join them in a national government. We handed them a jobs package and a pre-budget submission that would have much more sense in getting the economy back on track. Unfortunately, this Fianna Fáil-led Government failed to take that opportunity and it has made a major mistake, which will affect the people detrimentally for a long time to come.

See this speech in context