Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I would first like to congratulate those who have been promoted. In particular, I would like to single out Deputy Pat Carey, a colleague of mine on the north side of Dublin, whom I know will bring great energy to his new tasks.

Pouring old rhetoric into new skins will only produce hot air, and that is what we have heard from many Government spokespersons today. There have been many high flowing words and phrases like innovation, activation, knowledge economy, young people being the key to our success and so on. However, this will not make it happen, which is the tragedy of this Government. I recognise the Taoiseach is bringing in some green hedging to trim around his garden with these extra Ministers of State, but that will not conceal the rotting plantation that is inside.

The Tánaiste has just said that our young people are the key to the future. In the past two years, 80% of those who have lost their jobs have been under the age of 30. These are the people in whose future we should be investing. We should be looking to create the infrastructures that give them a future, such as a decent electricity system, a decent broadband system and a genuine knowledge economy. However, during this Government's tenure, export shares have collapsed because it pumped up the property bubble. Our competitiveness has collapsed by 35%. The National Competitiveness Council has stated that all policy in ICT is in the red zone, 75% of the competitiveness indicators are either amber or red and 80% of the indicators for the knowledge economy are in the red zone. We slump and fail in science and maths, but we have no policies to correct that. The Taoiseach thinks that adding "innovation" or "knowledge" to the name of a Department will change things, but it will not.

The Government has had stewardship of all these activities, but it has allowed them to decay. That is not a comfortable truth, but it is the truth all the same. It went to the electorate in 2007 looking for a mandate to continue the dream. The Taoiseach, then as Minister for Finance, stated that the property bubble was built on sound economic fundamentals. He said that the property bubble could go on and that the Government could build spending commitments on the back of it, which he did. Even after the crisis hit us-----

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