Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

Today we have seen the publication of the ESRI report on the economy, which illustrates the appalling economic catastrophe the country is now suffering. Its figures show that 300,000 jobs will be lost between this year and next. The economic decline forecast for Ireland is twice as bad as in any of our competitor countries and the rise in unemployment is also twice as bad as any of our competitor countries. This underlines once again that the vast majority of the difficulties faced in this country are the result of the policies over which the Taoiseach, as Minister for Finance, presided in recent years. It is a damning indictment of policy in this country, showing policy failure by policy makers, by regulators and by the property sector.

The tragedy is that the Government is persisting with policies that will not address these challenges. It contemptuously ignored warnings as they were delivered to it, and now Ireland stands alone as the only country that is attempting to deal with these catastrophic times by raising taxes and cutting investment. This is not a strategy that can address our problems. The recent budget showed a Government that is not willing to face up to the reform agenda this country needs. It showed a Government that is turning to ordinary people to pay for mistakes in policy. The central drive of the recent budget was to heap extra taxes on ordinary workers.

This coming Friday, 1 May, which is International Workers Day, will see a single person on the average industrial wage in Ireland pay tax at 51%. How can the Government think this is a strategy for recovery? The Government is bereft of a strategy for job protection or job creation. What are the figures we will hear later today for the latest month's increase in unemployment? This is a barometer which measures the extent to which we are destroying ordinary lives. I ask the Taoiseach what level of increase we have suffered in the last month.

See this speech in context