Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with Deputy Simon Coveney. I congratulate him on the constructive motion he brought before the House, on behalf of the Fine Gael Party, concerning a substantial infrastructure stimulus package. I regret that the Government at a time of economic crisis seems to think that it is a case of business as usual as Ministers come into the House to deliver set scripts rejecting practical and constructive proposals from the Opposition and continue the Government's ill-conceived policies.

The self-congratulatory counter-motion tabled by the Government is particularly nauseating. It lacks any shred of credibility. Astonishingly, it asks the Dáil to commend "the Government's actions over the past ten months to stabilise our public finances" and goes on to commend "the Government's commitment to maintaining a pro-enterprise and competitive taxation system". This Government comprising Fianna Fáil and the Green Party and its Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats predecessors is directly responsible for what the Taoiseach and Ministers now frequently refer to as "our structural deficit". Having created the deficit it is extraordinary that it has the brass neck to come into the House and congratulate itself on its failure to rein it in. Instead of individual groups demonstrating outside the House about the impact of ill-considered Government decisions on them there should be tens of thousands of people gathering in the city demanding that the Government leave office and calling for a general election. The Government which created the mess has demonstrated that it has absolutely no capacity to get us out of the mess. This is a Government that deserves no better than to be driven from office.

The inconvenient truth is that the State's so-called structural deficit is a result of the profligate public expenditure that Deputy Cowen, as Minister for Finance and as Taoiseach, authorised and for which he is uniquely responsible. He has created an unprecedented financial burden which not only impacts on every adult residing in the State but will affect the lives of their children and grandchildren. The structural deficit is a black hole in our public finances for which this Government and its predecessor are responsible. We have entered into it without the type of intergalactic travel that excites the imagination of Green Party members. It is firmly rooted on this island.

Today's ESRI report confirms that the Government has got all its financial projections and assumptions wrong. Three weeks after the most recent budget not one figure detailed there can be relied on. Today's scandalous figures on jobs, 388,000 unemployed which will likely reach at least 500,000, tragically confirm the Government's utter failure to either protect jobs or create new ones. Instead of maintaining a taxation system that contributes to competitiveness the Government is by taxation increases impeding the capacity of businesses to remain viable and creating obstacles to salary readjustments within businesses which allow jobs to be retained. No country has ever successfully taxed its way out of a recession. This country cannot do so.

This Government is taxing everyone who lives on this island into a deep and prolonged economic depression. We need a credible strategy to create and protect jobs. That is what Fine Gael is proposing, but the Government is failing to take it up.

The House has heard lectures on budgetary issues from the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and the Leader of the Green Party, Deputy Gormley, as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. This evening we heard from the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan.

In a unique way, the Minister, Deputy Gormley, has sleep-walked his way through office in the past two years. He is essentially an À la carte member of the Government who, despite being in Cabinet, disclaims all responsibility for the catastrophic budgets of December 2007, July and October 2008, and the most recent one on 7 April. He has been, of course, quick to claim credit for the economically astounding initiative taken by him on environmentally friendly lightbulbs. Clearly, his fixation with lightbulbs has dimmed his capacity to constructively contribute to Government deliberations on budgetary matters. Lectures on budgetary matters from members of the Cabinet deserve no more credibility than a lecture from a drunk on sobriety.

At a time of economic crisis, we have in office a floundering, disintegrating Government of increasing and unprecedented incompetence. In my view, and in the view of thousands of people outside this House, it is time for the Government to go. On 5 June, we should not be simply having local and European elections, as well as two bye-elections, we should also have a general election. The longer the current Government remains in office, the greater the damage that will be done to this country. It is time for our people to have their say. It should not require a march of the legions of tens of thousands of unemployed on this House to force this Government out of office. It is time for those who are responsible for where we are now to be held to account for the greatest financial and economic disaster that has ever occurred in the State.

For the good of the country, it is time for the Government to resign and let the people have their say. Many people outside this House sum up their views of this Government in one simple sentence, "For God's sake, and for the sake of this country, resign".

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