Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

On this the last day that the Taoiseach will be answering questions here before September, at the earliest, he has told us that the Government has three economic objectives, to improve competitiveness, to sort out the banks and to restore order to the public finances. Before we rise on Friday and the Dáil breaks for the summer I want to know what that means. The public is entitled to know what each of those objectives means.

I have seen no evidence of anything that Government has done to improve competitiveness. All I have seen is the reverse. Increasing VAT for example, has worsened competitiveness for Irish business. Three months ago the Government told us that its strategy for restoring the banks was to establish the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA. We do not have the legislation to do that, we do not have a precise date for its introduction and when Deputy Burton asked the Taoiseach for a timetable for the NAMA process he was at best vague about it yesterday. Before the Government puts the Dáil into recess for the summer we need to see the NAMA legislation, have it published and, if necessary, address it in the House.

The Taoiseach has told us that the recommendations of the McCarthy report will put order on the public finances. We have not seen the report. We have been told only that Mr. McCarthy was to report before the end of June. That did not happen. With each passing week as we came closer to the recess the submissions of the report has drifted until it is clear that the Government's intention is to receive it after the Dáil goes into recess, or certainly after we have had an opportunity to question the Taoiseach and Ministers about it here, and selectively leak its contents in a softening up exercise during the summer. I want to see the report before we break for the summer.

Will the NAMA legislation be published before the House rises for the summer? Will the McCarthy report be published before then? If the Taoiseach cannot assure us that will be done before Friday will he assure us that the House will continue in session until both of those essential pieces of information are put into the public domain and we know where we stand on the Taoiseach's strategy for the economy before the Dáil goes into recess for the summer?

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