John Cregan (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)

To the Taoiseach's credit, and whatever is said or unsaid, history will be kind to Deputy Brian Cowen as Taoiseach and leader of my party for his bravery in putting his country first and not playing politics by looking at county council seats or gaining points in polls. He put his country first and history will be very kind to him for that reason.

We can consider many commentaries, particularly those in Europe and outside our country, which argue that Ireland has got it right. An editorial from 4 May in The Irish Times was headlined "Hopeful Indicators". It stated:

Count the number of ships using Dublin Bay and you get a fairly good impression of the overall health of the economy. Traffic there slowed dramatically in 2008 and 2009. But now, the good news is that trade is recovering at Dublin Port".

That is just one indicator and I could also quote Jean-Claude Trichet, who is a very well respected gentleman in his own field in Europe. He has said we got it right. Davy Stockbrokers have said the Irish economy is out of recession, and there is declining cross-Border shopping as competitiveness improves.

These are all positive indicators, although I am not saying for a moment we are out of the woods because we are not. A Member on the benches opposite correctly stated that we are facing into a very difficult budget again this year and we must make very difficult cuts. I admire the bravery of the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, as well as other Ministers and colleagues on the backbenches. They have never flinched from their responsibility and have walked up these steps night after night, on the day of the budget and subsequent to the budget, to make tough decisions that were right for this country. We cannot be questioned on such actions. They are unpopular and our party is losing points in polls, which I accept, but we had little choice.

It has been mentioned that there are threats to the old age pension. I have the utmost confidence in the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív, and the pensioners in this country can sleep easy in the knowledge that he is in that portfolio. That man has a fantastic tradition from his family background within our parliamentary party and he has a great feel for rural and elderly people in particular. I am sure he will do a good job.

We do not need to be reminded of this issue by anybody else, as we have been very solid in our support for the elderly and vulnerable in our society. We have substantially increased the pension year on year for the past number of years, a fact of which I am proud. That cannot be taken from us. It will not always be dark at whatever hour of the evening it becomes dark at the moment; there will always be a better day. We should not curse the dark but light a candle instead. We should be positive and talk our country and economy up, which is very important.

I remember hearing two pensioners in conversation last year, with one saying the pension had been cut by €8. The other acknowledged that fact but said that if the IMF came in, they would not have €80 per week. That is a fair comment. We did not reach that stage. We tackled the issues in time.

We regret that we have arrived at this point. Peoples lives have become difficult. We make decisions on a weekly basis that have a direct impact on people's quality of life, but what we must discuss from now on is the creation of jobs and getting people back into the workplace. People have taken cuts in their pay, which has been difficult. Those who have received pay cuts, including every Deputy, must try to adjust their budgets accordingly. However, if someone is told on a Friday evening that his or her job is gone, having no wages the following week will be difficult. If that person's spouse or partner is told something similar the following week, it is also difficult. We would no longer be discussing pay cuts. Rather, we would be discussing the loss of a household's income, a serious situation for people to bear.

Many thousands of people have lost their jobs, but I always make the point that I do not accept the figure of 430,000 people unemployed. I am not saying the live register is lying, but when there was full employment, some 130,000 people were unemployed.

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