Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

This is probably the most important debate to take place in this House over recent decades, perhaps since the foundation of the State. We are talking about the future of the country. I refer in particular to the next generation of this country's citizens. The Government is offering the people of this country despair, rather than the hope they need from this debate. The Government that has been in power for 18 of the past 20 years needs to be changed so that the over 400,000 people who are unemployed can find jobs. We need a competent Government, rather than the incompetence we have faced over many years in this House. As we know from the annual reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Government has wasted a great deal of money on PPARS and electronic voting, for example. The people really want something different, but they are not getting it from the Government and there is no hope of it today. We are getting more of the same, despite the presence of the Green Party in the current coalition.

The Taoiseach said earlier this year that the young people of this country will be the first generation to be worse off than our generation. That is an appalling vista. It was an appalling statement for the Taoiseach to make, although it was not picked up on at the time. Change and new thinking are represented by Deputies Bruton and Kenny and the other members of my party, rather than those on the other side of the House. We want radical changes in the way this House does its business, including the budgetary process. We want the Freedom of Information Acts to be amended in the interests of increased accountability and transparency. We want good government, but we will not get it from the Members on the other side.

I would like to reflect on what the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, said on behalf of the Green Party. I respect him and his colleagues as people. They have been my friends in the past. The Minister, Deputy John Gormley, spoke a couple of years ago about what it was like for this country to be on Planet Bertie. He has since accepted the post of this Government's high priest, or Dalai NAMA, who offers absolution for the sins of builders and bankers at the altar of Fianna Fáil. The Green Party is in government with the most corrupt party in the history of the State. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, mentioned that legislation is not in place to bring people away in chains. I do not take any personal pleasure from reminding him that a former Minister, who sat on the Fianna Fáil side of the House, was led away in chains on foot of his involvement in planning corruption. Year after year, the tribunals expose the corruption that was at the heart of Dublin County Council. I refer to Frank Dunlop and others who engaged in the rezoning of land.

I cannot understand why the Green Party continues to act as the bondsman who bails Fianna Fáil out. Fianna Fáil's brass band consists of Green Party Deputies and Senators. They are playing footsie with a Government they campaigned against. They said they would not go into government with Fianna Fáil. I cannot understand why they do not want to bring about a change that would offer the hope and the jobs this country so badly needs. This failed and discredited Government has shown a wanton disregard for the ordinary people of this country. It has lined and will continue to line the pockets of the rich, while scourging the poor and ordinary people of Ireland. Over 440,000 people in this country do not have a job. Over 200,000 people have lost their jobs over the past year not because of the international recession, but because of a lack of regulation, the structural deficit and what has happened in the banks. That is because of a lack of regulation, the structural deficit and what has occurred in the banks.

One honourable banker, Eugene McErlean, stood up to the system some years ago by saying that his bank was corrupt and overcharging customers. However, his complaints to the Financial Regulator went unheeded. He has been without a job for the past seven or eight years because he dared to tell the truth and expose a scandal at the heart of our banking system. If he applies for a job with the Financial Regulator, will he even get an interview? Not on one's life. He has been blacklisted by the system. He was the one man in the banking system who stood up to tell the truth. He represents honour, integrity and decency and if we had more bankers like him, we could have confidence in our banks. Until the entire rotten system changes so that people such as Mr. McErlean are involved, the Green Party will only be speaking rubbish.

He stated in an article published this week that it was not the excesses in subprime lending that wiped out our economy, but a different disease. Little did we realise that the banking patients were already showing signs of terminal illness caused by that age old killer, over lending to the property sector. This was the killer which brought banks to their knees throughout economic history and which spawned expensive and sophisticated risk management machinery so that the banks remained inoculated and vigilant, or so we thought. However, the absence of enforcement was at the heart of the regulatory failure. In Ireland, it was not an issue of a rules versus principles based system but a failure to enforce any rules or principles at all. Earlier this year at an Oireachtas committee meeting, Senator Ross managed to extract an admission from the Financial Regulator that prior to 2008 no enforcement action had been taken against any major financial institution. We now know there was no shortage of issues upon which the regulator could have acted to enforce discipline. Indeed, a recent report published by the consumer panel of the Financial Regulator noted that there should be no distinction between principle and rules. Both are required in any absence of governance because principles in the absence of the enforcement of rules are ineffective.

The whole house has come tumbling down because the Government did not regulate the banks. Fianna Fáil in particular was so close to the builders and bankers that it brought us to this ruinous state. It is like a pyramid scheme in that the builders who got in early made their bucks while everybody else pays. We are all suffering because of poor governance and a lack of regulation. How many of the 50 top builders involved in NAMA appeared before the Mahon tribunal? If any are condemned, will we bail them out? Corruption lies at the heart of this matter and we need a new way of doing business if we are to offer hope instead of despair and jobs instead of jobseeker's allowance.

A change of Government is needed if these changes are to take place. The Green Party has the option of walking away from Fianna Fáil and causing an election. We need a mandate for the future and people are crying out for change, but they will not get it if this Government continues to stick together. At the margins of our constituencies, people are losing their jobs and their hope because the Government has no credibility. In the name of God, it is time for the Government to go. We must have a general election so that the people can decide. They will choose to get rid of Fianna Fáil and, if Green Party Members want to go down with the ship, let them. This side of the House believes it offers a credible alternative and new hope.

Fine Gael has created a constructive stimulus package, which Deputy Coveney has outlined for the Government. We must offer hope and change. The new green economy which we propose will create over 100,000 jobs given a Government with the determination, conviction and idealism to make the necessary changes. Clearly, however, the Government lacks these attributes.

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