Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

The main criticism of the Government in the two reports was that it contributed significantly to the scale of the home-grown economic crisis because of the policies pursued in the past decade. This helped create a climate of public opinion that led people to believe that the party could last forever. The Honohan report concluded that "macroeconomic and budgetary policies contributed significantly to the economic overheating, relying to a clearly unsustainable extent on the construction sector and other transient sources for Government revenue". The report by Klaus Regling and Max Watson stated that alarm bells should have sounded when the property booms and lending trends in the banking sector expanded as far back as 2003. They added that vote-winning economic policies during the boom heightened the vulnerability of the economy and the then Minister for Finance, the Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, began spending money while taxes were cut.

Both reports clearly state that the Government was at fault and that the Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, as the then Minister for Finance should take responsibility for that. Even the present Minister for Finance, Deputy, Brian Lenihan, said during a radio interview on 10 June that he deeply regretted some Government decisions that led to the banking crisis. He admitted that wrong decisions were made. Speaking on "Morning Ireland" he said that the economy became much too dependent on tax receipts from the likes of stamp duty which created an asset bubble. He pointed out that during the property boom, there was no appetite for the property tax, which would have curbed some of the activity.

The two reports point the finger fairly and squarely at the Government that was in power at that time. The Regling and Watson report states: "Fiscal policy, bank governance and financial supervision left the economy vulnerable to a deep crisis, with costly and extended social fallout." We see that every day in health cuts, loss of hospital beds, welfare reductions, cuts in job-creation incentive, cuts in services for those with special needs etc. The Opposition had no option but to table this motion today. If Fianna Fáil was in opposition - which it will be soon enough - it would do the same thing. These are the most damning reports on any Government I have seen since I was elected to the House more than 23 years ago and the Government should take responsibility for them.

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