Tom Sheahan (Kerry South, Fine Gael)

Many homemakers in this country would have made a better Minister for Finance than the current or the former Minister because they would have dealt with the issues of the day. They would not have spent as Charlie McCreevy we did, where we have it we will spend it. They would have put some aside. Some 450,000 people are unemployed and 250,000 people are in negative equity. Thousands of people are applying for the family income supplement. Some €4 billion was taken from last year's budget and we believe €3 billion will be taken from this year's budget. We will pay €1 billion in interest on NAMA and next year we will repay €1 billion to NAMA, costing the State €1 billion. In 2012, NAMA will cost us €7 billion. I put it to the Minister of State that the Minister for Finance is merely putting out fires as they flare up around him on a day-to-day basis. In September 2008, the banks went into the office of the Minister for Finance and browbeat him into providing the cover they needed. I believe they would not leave the room until they received assurances on the bank guarantee. Banks have been doing likewise since. The Taoiseach alluded to this today when it was made clear to him that all information that came from banks from that day to this has not been the whole truth or nothing but the truth.

I refer to an article written in a small publication circulated in New Jersey. The article refers to an Irish lesson and how the US can learn from economic mistakes. It is based on the Irish economy.

As Washington ponders the choice between (1) stimulative spending to juice up the economy and the job market and (2) budget cuts to reel in the national debt or some combination, there's a cautionary tale in the Irish experience.

We took the latter course, budget cuts and tax increases. The US took the former option with a massive stimulus package. Hence, it has done well since.

Almost two years ago, Dublin faced the same painful choice. After a decade of growth that earned Ireland envy as "the Celtic tiger," the country's economy collapsed under the weight of an overheated housing market and lousy mortgages. [This is familiar to both economies.] The Irish didn't hesitate. In a let's-get-this-over-with-quickly move, they slashed public spending and raised taxes, the standard recovery recipe of deficit hawks at the International Monetary Fund. The result? Even worse economic shrinkage.

Earlier this week, Deputy Mattie McGrath said he believes the IMF will be in here before Christmas. The Minister for Finance is reacting to the IMF. The Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach regularly come in here and tell us how well we have done and how we have been complimented by our European counterparts.

The country's economy declined by slightly more than 7 percent last year, unemployment is now more than 13 percent. Adding insult to injury, the world's investors, instead of rewarding Irish belt-tightening, have hiked the cost of Irish borrowing. Their reason: a belief [Dáil Éireann's] spending cuts will actually retard growth and make it more difficult to pay down debt.

We need stimulus and job creation. Two thirds of the economy is based on consumer spending. The longer we continue taking money out of people's pockets, the longer our recovery will take.

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