Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

The debate on this Bill provides an opportunity to explore the proposals put forward by Fine Gael to deal with the difficult situation, nationally and internationally, in the context of the global credit crisis, the global recession, our internal difficulties and the dynamics that have stemmed from that. The Bill could be described as a smoke and mirrors emergency measures in the public interest Bill because it is simply creative accounting at its very best, and at its worst it is disingenuous in that it is claimed that if it was enacted, households could save more than €400 annually. The revenue will have to come from somewhere, otherwise there will have to be further cuts in services provided to the public by the various agencies and authorities that carry out work on behalf of the State for the people.

This Bill does not in any way address the serious situation the economy is facing on a number of fronts. Primarily, there is the difficulty in terms of credit availability, the vulnerability of the banking system in Ireland and the possible knock-on effect of deleveraging of debt for the foreseeable future, which would create huge pressures for the financial institutions and there is also the issue of their inability to provide credit to small and medium-sized businesses and to individuals who want to purchase homes, cars etc. For all those reasons, the big ticket item facing us is to try to ensure the economy recovers, grows, starts to expand and creates employment and opportunities again for our people.

This Bill camouflages what we should be talking about, which are the serious issues as opposed to the trivia that has been outlined in this context and the bluff about the fact that the enactment of this Bill would in some way save money. There is no creative or magic solution to trying to address the budget deficit. The money has to be raised somewhere, otherwise there will have to be further cuts.

The explanatory memorandum states:

The recession has impacted on people's lives through falling incomes and job losses. This has been compounded by government decisions to raise taxes and cut pay, welfare and professional fees in response to the fiscal crisis.

The reality is that if this Bill was enacted, we would have to increase taxes further, cut pay more and then address the issue of social welfare pay also. It is disingenuous to say this is a cost-neutral-----

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