Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

There is no point in the Opposition dancing on a pinhead to avoid the reality of what must be challenged. As the Taoiseach stated in the House today, we have taken more than €8 billion out of the economy. No other European government has faced up to its responsibility like the Irish Government, a fact that has been acknowledged internationally. In the December budget, we need to face the substantial challenge of removing further expenditure from the economy because we do not have the income to match it. We will need to consider the requisite balances. It is clear that if we revert to the mistakes of the late 1970s and 1980s, we will crucify the country for another generation. The sooner we face up to taking the pain on the chin and moving on, the sooner we will recover when opportunities arise nationally and internationally. The Opposition's rhetoric seeks to ignore entirely the change in our tax revenue and expenditure bases. The sooner that it comes to realise and accept these changes and contributes something substantial to the debate inside and outside the House, the sooner we will be able to move on.

I will refer to an ironic benefit of what is occurring. In recent years, our competitiveness suffered greatly. Given the economic crisis, demand and decreasing costs, our competitiveness is improving, which is not bad. This is evident in the tourism sector, for which I am directly responsible. Where we were once going out of the market, we are now fighting hard to maintain our tourism base. We are making substantial investment in the tourism marketing fund and are holding our international market share, albeit in difficult international circumstances. We are sustaining nearly 300,000 jobs. While there have been job losses in the sector, the attrition rates witnessed in other countries are worse than our rate. Our policies, through State agencies, are clearly the right ones if we are to sustain the market. We can take heart from the fact that post 9/11 and the BSE crisis, we were the first economy to recover and return to the sort of tourism numbers. We did so in a better way than any of our European competitors.

As we look to the future, it is equally clear that we will need to take financial decisions in the next two or three years if we are to demonstrate to the public why pain must be taken now and where recovery will occur. Doing so is possible. The classical Labour and Fine Gael rhetoric has surprised me. I remember the elections of the 1970s and 1980s, but it is extraordinary that the rhetoric has not changed. As per usual, it is all about smoke and mirrors. They claim that we do not need to increase taxes, but that we can continue to spend. At the same time, the Opposition will not identify what we need to do. I would like to pose some questions.

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