Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

The one result we got from the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, was the lack of a plan. He spoke of a plan but none was provided by the Government in the Chamber today. The Minister for Finance read out a document that was devoid of a plan. The only item I agreed with was that we know from our experience in the 1980s that we cannot tax our way out of a recession. The Government tried to do that last year and it failed dismally. I hope it learned its lesson.

The Fine Gael Party believes three issues must be tackled. The Government must address the public finances, restore banking and get credit flowing and deal with the area of international competitiveness. We put forward a proposal to deal with these. We are an exporting nation. The only way we will come out of this crisis is by getting back to what we are good at, namely, dealing on the export market. We are a small open economy. We were doing that up to around 2003 and suddenly the wheels came off the wagon when the Government moved towards construction. It was getting €30,000 from every house produced. As the Minister stated, less tax is received from exports than from construction. However, ultimately the revenue is more stable. We no longer have the luxury of being able to devalue our currency but we must make our economy competitive. We must ensure that we maintain jobs.

My party has been around the country meeting business people. They wish to keep people in employment.

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