Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I am not glad the debate is happening because this is one of the most serious issues I have ever risen to address in my time in this House. Of course, this is not a debate. It is a series of statements. We need to re-assert the relevance of the House and ensure that the sort of clinical analysis provided by my colleague, Deputy Broughan, is responded to in a meaningful way and that the people who are making decisions in the short term are listening and engaging and are required to account. For the moment, we must put up with statements, where people are at least able to state, for the record, their views on the calamity that has befallen our nation, brought about by a lethal combination of individuals.

I begin by contribution in the middle of the story and make mention of the night of 29 September 2008 when the most calamitous decision ever made by an Irish Government was made. At that moment, the country was brought to its knees. The Government has spun a story from that night but it is not even able convince its own backbenchers, as yesterday's comments from Deputy Seán Power on "Morning Ireland" attest.

In great ignorance calamitous, a decision was taken to sign a blank cheque which turned into a noose around the neck of all citizens and their children yet to be born. The decision has been spun as being the only thing to do and the Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Honohan, was spun as confirming the righteousness of the decision even though he did no such thing. Professor Honohan confirmed the need for an expansive guarantee but the Government provided a blanket guarantee for a black hole of money. It had no notion of the size of sums involved then and it since made several stabs at arriving at the figure. We have long sought to determine the cost of that ruinous decision and have been given various estimates. The latest reply from the Government is that it hopes the final figure will be between €45 billion and €50 billion.

This ruinous cost is being taken on by the State for a rotten institution called Anglo Irish Bank and a small cabal of developers, ten of whom had loans of between €1 billion and €3 billion. A lauded group of cowboys was given access to sums of money so vast as to be outside the comprehension of most people. Most of us are bewildered by the thought of billions of euro but these cowboys were unconditionally given any sum they wanted and for virtually any purpose.

Our problems were crystalised in Anglo Irish Bank. Profligate bankers, drunk on their capacity to shovel out borrowed money, believed they were masters of the universe and the creators of the Celtic tiger economy. They lectured all and sundry about their Midas touch. The political masters were blind to the impending catastrophe and deluded about the function of a real economy. A small group of politicians centred around the Progressive Democrats and the core of Fianna Fáil believed they could shrink this nation's tax base while at the same time finding sufficient money to fund social provision through a giant pyramid scheme. The regulators were unfit for purpose. I recognise they were hobbled by a Government that made clear it did not want to hear from naysayers but despite their substantial salaries they were content to keep their heads down as the tragedy unfolded. They considered their duties were met by the odd muted suggestion that perhaps matters were getting out of control. The developers saw they could cosy up to politicians while they invented the perfect money spinning racket. They were able to access boundless capital from their crony bank and develop any site they wanted with problem free planning permission. They bid up the price of land to unprecedented levels and nobody said "No". At the end of the day, they rolled their debts over for profit. They believed the racket would never end. Any gobdaw could make a profit, and many did.

The first casualties were the ordinary men and women who wanted to buy homes and start their families. They were told to move quickly, to queue overnight, and to pay any price in case the homes became more expensive the following day. The so-called lucky ones who signed up for mortgages when they began their family lives are today saddled with crippling debts, reduced incomes and negative equity. These were the first casualties but, by God, they were not the last. The cost of the crisis was not confined to first-time buyers because every man, woman and child is required to pay for the mistakes of an evil and vicious set of people who connived with the Government to bring us to our knees. This cost will be with us long into the future.

The most offensive phrase, and the one which grates most with people, is: "we are where we are", as if some malevolent external force from Mars brought this proud nation to its current sorry state. The day is not far away when the people will have the opportunity to hold to account those who were politically responsible. All the spin in the world will not exonerate their guilt. The people will make that determination and they cannot be dodged forever. It will be for others than the people who brought us to this catastrophe to map a way out and to give hope and leadership.

The Labour Party will play its part. We have accepted the economic parameters agreed with the European Commission and will support efforts to reach the deficit target of 3% of GDP by 2014. We have a clear understanding of the difficulties involved in reaching that target. We have a track record of doing the right thing in these matters, unlike some whose record is of bringing the economy to its knees on more than one occasion. I was privileged to serve in Cabinet from 1993 to 1997. That Government made hard decisions. Unusually, the very night we received our seals of office on a cold January in 1993, we were briefed by officials from the Department of Finance on the difficult state of the public finances. That Government and its immediate predecessor, both of which had a very significant Labour Party component, made hard decisions on expenditure. I was Minister for Health for its first budget and Minister for the Environment for its second. They were big-spending Departments and there were big demands placed on them. The Labour Party made difficult decisions on taxation that had an impact on everybody.

Furthermore, decisions were made on creating jobs, generating growth and creating the potential for the economy not to be crippled. From an extraordinarily difficult position, the Labour Party helped to map a route to progress. When we left office in 1997, we had been creating 1,000 new, real sustainable jobs every week. We left a balance-of-payments surplus behind us for the incoming Government. The national balance was in credit. We left behind us an economy built on sound job creation principles that resulted in sustainable jobs, manufacturing jobs and export-driven jobs. There were affordable houses in respect of which one could calculate one's mortgage entitlement on the basis of one's annual salary. One could get a maximum of two and a half or three times one's salary. That was the lie of the land.

It was a question of developing social services that could be paid for and sustained. That is Labour's record. When people criticise us and say we do not know how to do things or are afraid of hard decisions, they should note we have picked up the broken bits before and assembled a decent economy. The people know we can do it again.

Fianna Fáil and its supporters, including the Progressive Democrats and latterly the Green Party, and various so-called Independents, have brought us to a much worse position than we faced in 1992. However, we will meet that task also. It is now clear from all the talk of consensus in the past two weeks or so that only a change of Government can bring about the national momentum required to assist us to climb out of the economic hole the Government has cast us into.

Every Member of this House, including me, has been transfixed by the story of the miners' rescue in Chile, particularly in recent days. The story came to a happy conclusion last night, thank God. A joyous Chilean President spoke of national unity, common purpose and sheer combined determination to achieve what seemed impossible. That should be our example. However, the Chilean effort involved the people; so must ours. The people must be consulted and decide. They will not tolerate any political ready-up by any parties in this House, particularly not one that maintained at its core discredited politicians who have brought us to this sorry pass.

The first aspect of our agenda concerns next year's budget, the second is the budget strategy for the next four years, the third component will be a strategy for jobs, and the fourth will be a strategy for reform. I want to mention the Labour Party's attitude to each of these elements.

With regard to the budget ahead, we said we accepted the need for cutbacks of €3 billion next year. We will publish our pre-budget statement, as we did last year, outlining how we would achieve that. It is not rocket science in that there are three components, as always. First is the issue of capital expenditure, second is the issue of current expenditure and third is the issue of taxation. Between those three elements, we will determine to find the €3 billion. Irrespective of whether that figure has now changed, as has been hinted by some Ministers, or whether it is €4.3 billion, as blurted by the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív, we clearly need to see the figures. We understand that is now, finally, to be done.

The Labour Party will meet the task and set out its strategy. With regard to the four-year strategy, it will set out where we should go. Equally important are the other two elements I mentioned, namely, a strategy for reform and a strategy for jobs. I do not have time to address them in detail. We have laid out reams of policy documents on these matters over the past two years, many of which documents have been alluded to by other Labour Party speakers this morning, including Deputy Jan O'Sullivan and Deputy Brian O'Shea.

We talked about our graduate placement programmes, our strategic investment bank proposal and our loan guarantee scheme. All these elements and more will be required to achieve the most important objective, namely, jobs for our people.

The reform agenda will be broad and we will spell it out. It will include reform of the Oireachtas itself and its functions, as alluded to at the beginning of my speech. Thus, we will not be talking aimlessly at people who have already written their responses. I desire an Oireachtas that is in command, that holds people to account and where people are required to respond in a sensible and open way.

Other aspects of the strategy for reform need to be addressed. I do not have time to allude to them all. One element is the public service itself, which has fallen down on the job in this regard, as other speakers indicated. Also to be considered is the regulation system, which goes well beyond the Central Bank, the Department of Finance and Financial Regulator in that it concerns the accounting organisations, the auditing organisations. We must have fundamental reform of all those in order to restore confidence among the Irish people and those others on whom we depend for support.

The Labour Party will spell out its views on all these critical matters. All parties have a window of opportunity between now and early next year, during which time this nation will not be going to the bond markets looking for additional capital, to lay out before the people their programmes for growth and development and their fiscal, taxation and reform measures. It is on this basis that a new Government with a long-term fresh mandate can begin the slow climb to progress that the people demand and provide the leadership and hope they require.

See this speech in context