Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important motion of confidence in the Government. I join with my colleague, Deputy Seán Power, in congratulating the two new Deputies - Deputies George Lee and Maureen O'Sullivan - and I wish them the best of luck in the important work they have ahead.

The backdrop to the motion from the Opposition is the European and local election results which emerged following the vote last Friday. They represented a devastating result for the Fianna Fáil party and for our partners in Government, the Green Party. Fianna Fáil lost outstanding public representatives throughout the country, many of whom are from Cork, and their work must be acknowledged in the House today.

It is important to state that the Government has made mistakes. Every Government in the history of the State has made some mistakes. It would be incredible if a party could be in Government for 12 years and not have made some mistakes. However, in my view and by any objective analysis, the benefits of Government policy since Fianna Fáil came to office in 1997 have far outweighed the negative aspects of any decision made. That must be accepted across the board. If the Opposition believes the Government has made mistakes it must acknowledge that there must be honesty on all sides of the House.

The Minister of State, Deputy Curran, referred to the Fine Gael and Labour joint manifesto of two years ago. From listening to some of the comments and contributions to the debate thus far, one would think there was a complete monopoly on wisdom from the Opposition, that it saw this coming and that Fianna Fáil has done nothing right since 1997. As Deputy Curran stated, it was only two years ago that Fine Gael and Labour went to the people with a joint policy platform, which I have before me, forecasting growth in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. Fine Gael and Labour stated as much two years ago. There is no credibility to the Opposition suggestion that we got it wrong all the time since 1997. The greatest economic brains of the Opposition concluded, based on all the available public data two years ago, that the economy would grow for a successive number of years. That has not transpired and the fact is no one saw this coming, no one foresaw the extent of the collapse in the global financial system and no one foresaw the collapse of Lehman Brothers and other major financial institutions overnight.

It is important to have a mature debate because there is no monopoly on wisdom, no one has all the answers and there are no easy answers to working the country through what is the most difficult and deep recession since the great depression of the 1930s. It must be put on record that the Government has taken tangible steps several times in recent months, including the budget last October and the supplementary budget in April, the decision in respect on the pension levy and so on. Every tangible decision and step proposed by Government has been opposed by the Opposition. The Opposition parties have effectively stated that we got it wrong every time. If they are elected at some point will they reverse any of these decisions? I suspect they would not. Would they reverse the decision on the pension levy, the increase in the income levies or the medical card decisions? No Opposition party leader has stated that they would reverse these decisions. Their criticisms of the Government have no credibility.

Earlier, the Minister of State, Deputy Roche, stated that if people were to elect Fine Gael and Labour, they would not know what policies would result. Fine Gael would go into an election with one set of policies and Labour with a completely different set. If they were to form a Government, their policies would have to be merged. We would end up with a mishmash of some description and, ultimately, people would not know which policies would be pursued. There are fundamental differences of policy on the banks, on public expenditure, on whether to spend more or less, on the future of the public sector, on the need for reform, whether increments should be paid and whether to support benchmarking. Labour has been in bed with SIPTU and other trade unions but Fine Gael has a far more lukewarm attitude to social partnership. These are fundamental issues that would lie at the heart of the future of any Government. If people were to support those parties in a general election, they would not know the final outcome in terms of Government policy.

Our policies must focus on jobs, promoting an enterprise culture, bringing stability to the public finances, sorting out the issues in the banking system and restoring competitiveness. We must face up to some very important issues in the House, including the NAMA legislation. Public sector reform must be dealt with and we must all work together to ensure the Government can bring the country through the recession. I believe the Taoiseach and the Government have the capacity to make those decisions and to get the country back to work in the quickest possible timeframe.

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