Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

Where did we here the words that the "worst is over" before? The last time we heard those words was from the Minister for Finance when he had introduced the bank guarantee scheme and was introducing the legislation setting out the terms and conditions of it, which left the option wide open for the banks to continue to play their merry jig and thumb their noses not only at the taxpayers but at the European institutions. We are supposed to believe there is credibility there.

The "worst is over" comment of the Minister for Finance reminds of another comment he made in the budget before last when he said that people should do their patriotic duty, by which he meant they should not go across the Border to buy a can of beer. I would like to see the patriotic duty of this Government given some practical and credible leadership in working its way out of this economic crisis by dealing with some issues such as giving SMEs some vibrancy through a stimulus package. We have not had a stimulus package. Admittedly, there have been job announcements. We have had more than 600,000 job announcements by the Government during the past year, but where have the jobs been created? There has been a trickle of jobs here and there, but job creation, as such, is not happening.

I caution other Opposition parties - who may not be in government with us if we have a good enough election performance on the next occasion - that the Government is trying to fool the people into believing that it was going to create these 600,000 odd jobs, but, guess what, the electorate turfed it out, it did not get to do that, the new Government will not do the business and the people should have stuck with it, or some such nonsense. In any event, what it amounts to is that we have a Government of announcements and not a Government of action.

There are few other gems in the Minister's speech. He said: "We are also investing in small firms [I give him credit for this] - in the earliest stages of development via Enterprise Ireland's €175 million seed and venture capital programme." I commend that; I only wish the fund was bigger. I know that seed and venture capital investment is high risk but when such investment works it yields a huge return, and it has worked substantially in recent years. I acknowledge that. It is one area of investment which, although it is high risk, is useful.

The Minister also spoke about increasing "the number of new export focused jobs" and he made an another announcement of 150,000 jobs. It is probably the fourth time that was announced but there is no substance around it.

I have wasted too much time on the nonsense about which the Government is talking. I am not a Fine Gael supporter but the Minister said that "The Fine Gael motion ... [was] promoting an all pervasive loan guarantee scheme and allowing the banks off the hook" - such a comment from a Fianna Fáil Minister. I am sorry for laughing; I would rather not laugh and get on with addressing the seriousness of the business in hand. However, that comment is so ridiculous and ludicrous that it is worst than pathetic. An Opposition party in this House is being accused of letting the banks off the hook when characters are swanning around America, Seanie and few characters are still swanning around this town while the rest of them are sipping champagne in fancy restaurants in Spain and celebrating the fact that they got over there. Deputy Perry, or whoever will reply to this debate, should remember that the Fine Gael Party is letting the banks off the hook. I would like to hear that party's response to that comment.

In regard to providing credit to SMEs, they simply are not getting it; it is a very light trickle. The consequences of that is that one business is not paid by another and, consequently, it cannot pay its suppliers. Therefore, a domino effect is occurring across the board which is resulting in the loss of viable jobs and the closing down of viable businesses and that will continue to happen until the Government stops its bluff and bluster. It will continue to happen until such time as the Government finds a bit of backbone somewhere or someone on the opposite side, with a segment of entrepreneurial spirit, says to the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance, "Lads, cop on; you are making a muck of this; you are costing hundreds of thousands of businesses to close and hundreds of thousands of jobs to be lost - viable companies, viable jobs." They should wise up and get off the scene. We should hit the decks and have an election. Let us clear this up once and for all and see where the mandate lies and, hopefully, somebody will come in to pick up the pieces before it is too late.

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