Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)

I compliment Deputy Bruton on putting down this important and timely motion, particularly when unemployment is savage. The Government does not listen to the people. Prior to the crash, people were predicting the property bubble would burst since one cannot give money away for free. The Irish people predicted that young people would have millstones around their necks for the rest of their lives. Obviously, commentators and experts will pat each other on the back - last night David McWilliams was being commended for predicting the crash. He was not on his own, however. Someone in every household predicted this crash, an argument the Government fails to hear.

People never wanted to pump billions of euro in Anglo Irish Bank. Today's announcement is more money going into a dark hole that will lead to dark times for many years to come.

There are, however, solutions. The Government will try to stretch its lifetime as far as possible but it has the opportunity to do something while it is still in place about red tape and bureaucracy. Every person in business in this country is stifled with red tape. The situation is so bad that it keeps prices up. We cannot continue with these high costs. The legacy of this Fianna Fáil Government is that it has the most sophisticated state-sponsored bureaucracy in the EU. Everyone knows that; we go on holiday to Spain, France and Belgium and see how we have gone too far to implement directives while blaming Europe.

Job creation, retraining and up-skilling were all mentioned. There are perfectly well trained nurses heading to London and elsewhere because they cannot get work here. There are teachers who are well qualified to educate the people of this country but they cannot get a teaching post. I appreciate there is a moratorium in place in the public service but we must review its implementation. People at the coalface, be they nurses or teachers, are well trained and want to work but cannot get a job.

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