Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I listened carefully to the Taoiseach's contribution, which did not contain a single proposal the Government intends to carry out despite having held two days of meetings at Farmleigh House and Government Buildings. At present, depression, anxiety, concern and fear stalk the land. This is because of the Government's catastrophic failure to deal with reality in the clear-eyed fashion to which the Taoiseach referred. Hundreds of thousands of people have genuine fears and concerns about their future and security. They have concerns about their resolve to keep a roof above their heads and about jobs, employment and an economic future for themselves and their families. The reason for all this is the Government cannot be believed and has no credibility or truth left. On the day Deputy Cowen was appointed Taoiseach, I stated that he should put his new mandate to the people for their approval. The real difference now is that the present Government, which practically is at the end of its life, has run out of time and credibility. Neither the international markets nor the people believe it.

The version from Ministers, who arrived at Farmleigh House in sleek transportation in a manner reminiscent of the Anglo Irish coming back to the big house, is to state repeatedly that they want to do what is fair and to make decisions that are in the interests of the people and the country. They state that each Minister is looking at all other Departments - so we will all hang together instead of hanging separately - which is a complete change from the manner in which Ministers used to approach budgets in the past. Moreover, this morning I heard the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport stating that the Opposition parties should now accept the €15 billion.

The leaders of the Fine Gael Party and the Labour Party, who attended the meeting last week with the Taoiseach and the absent Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, have accepted the target to reduce the deficit to 3% of GDP by 2014. However the Government will not be successful in any attempt to browbeat Opposition parties into accepting all the elements of the budget or the cuts on which it now must make decisions. It is about time for the Government to face this crisis rather than running from it, as it has done repeatedly. Every single projection put forward by the Taoiseach, the Government and the Minister for Finance, who now has lost considerable political momentum, has been wrong. One was told that NAMA would make a profit and that the deficit would be €3 billion, €5 billion or €10 billion but on each occasion, this figure has risen far beyond Government projections.

We now have reached a point at which emigration is back on the agenda. Irrespective of what has happened, the really sad fact about this political situation, arising from the billions that have been wasted by an incompetent Government and by Ministers who neglected to oversee public expenditure, pertains to the hundreds of thousands who are leaving this country with the consequential transfer of the investment in education and training of graduates across all walks of Irish life who now will give of their talent and their futures to other jurisdictions. Added to that is the depression, anxiety and concern of the many people who put their belief in the present Government on the last occasion by a majority. However, it has failed utterly to live up to the trust placed in it through the ballot box. As far as the present Government is concerned, the moral of the story is that everyone should leave, be they bankers, regulators, governors of central banks or bank boards, except for the Government itself. Its time is coming and when the people get their chance they will exercise their mandate appropriately.

There is much talk on the part of the Taoiseach and other Ministers on the need to restore Ireland's credibility in international markets and Members on this side of the House share that concern. However, yesterday's announcement of the need to commit a further €15 billion from the public finances in the coming years constitutes an indictment of the disastrous failure of the Government to restore Ireland's credibility both at home and abroad. The credibility of our country is on the floor and the reason the Government is unable to enter the bond auction markets is because there is no belief in its strategy for growth in the Irish economy over coming years. This is not because of anything that the people have done. It is because of the continuance in office of a Government the policies of which not only led us into this crisis but which at every turn have made that crisis much worse. Our credibility is on the floor because each projection made by the Government has been proved to be wrong and each announcement of recovery has been premature. The Government stated that the corner has been turned, that there was a light at the end of the tunnel and that the only way was up but each time, this has been proven to be wrong.

The colossal failure of the Government's banking strategy also has damaged our credibility. After two years, most other countries have cleaned up their banking problems and people have been put in prison. However, the Government has failed to restore credit availability and now has lumbered Irish taxpayers with a €40 billion mortgage, the cost of which at approximately €1.5 billion must be met each year in perpetuity. Many Ministers could do a great deal of work with that kind of money, were it available to be spent on Irish infrastructure and jobs. Ireland's credibility has been hammered by the paralysis of the Government in the face of the huge reforms required in the public and private sectors to make the economy competitive enough to export our way back to full employment and sound health in the public finances. Six months after finalising the Croke Park agreement, not a single euro has been saved by its provisions as the entire public sector waits for some political leadership and a credible reform plan. After two years of blundering, paralysis and catastrophic misjudgments in almost every area, Ireland now stands at the edge of an economic abyss, threatened with the loss of our economic sovereignty, led there by an incompetent Government incapable of managing the affairs of the people.

The Taoiseach says Irish people must restore Ireland's damaged credibility through massive cuts in services and entitlements and tax increases. He outlined three of them in general terms today - social welfare, health and education. I note the Minister for Health and Children made the announcement of a cut of between €600 million and €1 billion in the health area outside the House. We were promised a world class health system. We know we have world class doctors and nurses but we do not have a world class system to back them up. The Minister calmly announced a cut of between €600 million and €1 billion in the health area, and let them eat cake after that.

The Government has imposed these cuts in services, tax increases and losses of entitlements on people. We must recognise that there are no painless solutions to the crisis in which we now find ourselves. It has become depressingly clear that everyone in our society will be affected by the measures required to undo the damage the Government has inflicted on the Irish people. There is a way to restore at least some of the country's lost credibility. That is by showing that the Irish people will hold failure to account and that there will be political consequences for disastrous economic management. A new Government with new ideas and a new mandate would, at least, have the impact of reducing Ireland's borrowing rate by 0.5%, as happened in Britain a few months ago.

The Fine Gael Party remains committed to reducing the deficit to 3% of GDP by 2014, as agreed with the European Commission. Reopening negotiations at this point with the EU to extend the period of fiscal adjustment beyond 2014 could lead to a further loss of international confidence in the Irish economy in 2011, with disastrous consequences. We know that Ireland is now likely to borrow more than €60 billion over the coming four years, pushing our debt to GDP ratio to well over 105%. Irrespective of the views of the European Union, there is no guarantee that markets will be willing to lend Ireland the additional resources required to extend any period of adjustment. The credibility of any four year fiscal plan is dependent on the likely growth path over the coming years. Largely reflecting the colossal cost of its banking policy and its failure to restore credit availability, the Government now projects higher debt-servicing costs and lower growth - an average of 2.7% - than hoped for last year. As a result, it has doubled the estimate of the spending cuts and tax increases required in order to hit the 3% borrowing target in 2014 from €7.5 billion to €15 billion. There are better possible outcomes. For instance, if the ESRI's updated high-growth scenario of an average growth of 4.5% were to materialise, a smaller package of fiscal measures would be needed to hit the 3% target by 2014.

That is why Fine Gael believes it is necessary, over the coming weeks, to put a relentless focus on the ways to support growth and jobs as the country attempts to repair its public finances. That is why Fine Gael believes that any fiscal plan has to operate in parallel with a credible growth and jobs plan to turn the present downward vicious cycle into an upward virtuous cycle. We have a different approach from the Government. Fine Gael offers real hope that we can rebuild our economy and restore trust in politics and in Government.

I recognise the need for a new start. The language and circumstances of the past cannot deal with the crisis we now face. This crisis has to be dealt with but we have to have a new start based on politicians telling the public the truth about where we stand as a country. The Fine Gael Party will open the books to the public when we get the opportunity, tell them the truth and point out how their country was run for the past decade or so. We are not a prisoner of any big business or powerful union. Our only interest is the public's interest. More than that, we can offer hope for the future because unlike any other party we have done a detailed analysis and made detailed plans to restore our country's fortunes. The central pillar of our plan is the commitment to making the protection and creation of jobs the first and last priority of a new Government.

There is a simple truth that appears to have escaped those in Government Buildings and the Department of Finance. If we do not grow our economy and fix our jobs crisis we will never fix our financial crisis. This is not just about fiscal consolidation, as they call it, or cuts, in the Taoiseach's language. This is about our own society, our people, our country and what the endgame is. The endgame has to be a country that works, a people who have career opportunities and where there is a sense of security, confidence and the hope to which the Taoiseach referred. The endgame will not be easy to achieve. We have been led to this point by the bluffs, untruths, negligence and incompetence of the Government over the last number of years. That is why we are committed to an enterprise society, where small businesses and entrepreneurs are supported by ensuring that banks are the servants of enterprise.

When we look at what creates jobs in our country we recognise the need for a number of key factors. There must be a favourable macro-economic environment that comprises a competitiveness profile, an advantageous tax position, a sharp industrial policy, a superior education system, support for entrepreneurship and a first rate public sector, particularly where it touches on jobs issues. There must be a targeted policy where it is possible directly to create jobs, or boost or support job creation, in specific areas.

We used to have a number of advantages over all other countries. Some are still in place, others are in areas where we have clearly slipped, some are outside our complete control and others are not. We need to be brutally honest with ourselves in evaluating our position and deciding what measures we have to take if we are to look at a credible growth pattern with a concentrated focus on jobs and on getting people back to work. The low corporation tax has been a fundamental lever for foreign direct investment into Ireland. I was honoured to be a member of the Government that introduced that low corporation tax rate. Many other countries now have a similar position. We must defend our position here. This party, in government, will defend that position. From speaking to business interests abroad, it is perfectly obvious they value the low corporation tax rate. It is still a matter of fundamental importance to our jobs policy.

We have, clearly, slipped in the area of cost competitiveness. The Government lost sight of the impact of cost control and cost competitiveness in business, whether of local authority rates and charges, red tape or bureaucracy. Many of our 80,000 small businesses are nearing bankruptcy. Many are struggling to remain in business. They have never been written to by Government saying: "These are the supports or encouragement we can offer you. This is what we want to do for you if you can take on one extra employee". They have never been contacted and assured that Government recognises the importance of small business and of what small and medium enterprises can do for our country.

I recently spoke to business people in the United States, where there is still huge interest in investing here and ensuring that Irish small and medium enterprises can export to that country. The IDA has always done a fine job in attracting foreign direct investment but we have slipped in some respects in recent years. We have to examine the trends to find out why we were No. 1 and what we have to do to make this the best small country in the world to do business.

Last week in City West, I attended the Ernst and Young entrepreneur of the year awards. Somebody who flew in solely to attend that function would be blown away by the potential, initiative and creative ingenuity shown by many small and medium enterprises around the country. In Government, Fine Gael will remove the shackles from people who want to work and create jobs but who are being impeded by a lack of encouragement and obstacles put up by Government bureaucracy.

There has been much discussion of our diaspora. Last year, people from all over the world gathered in Farmleigh House. It is a pity that event was hijacked by the Department of Foreign Affairs, which never had the competence a Department of trade and industry might have in dealing with these matters. Unless we bring from that meeting specific initiatives and results, people will not attend another one. Diasporas have had an impact on Taiwan, India and Israel in terms of serious investment and job creation. The Irish diaspora, whether in the United States or elsewhere in the world, is willing to contribute and wants to help our country. That has not been harnessed to the extent it should.

Fine Gael has pointed out on numerous occasions that our education system has both strengths and weakness. Major employers in the technology sector have voiced concerns about the position of science and mathematics. The rote learning of many aspects of the leaving certificate has led many potential employers to state that our students display less capacity for imaginative and independent thinking than those of other countries. That issue needs to be addressed for the sake of the fine qualities of our thousands of young people who can and will measure up to the competitive pressures of their peers around the world if they are given the opportunity.

The entrepreneurial culture of which Fine Gael speaks must be maintained. In the 1980s, Ireland had one of the lowest percentages in Europe of people who wanted to run their own businesses but by the late 1990s and the early part of this decade, we had one of the highest percentages. That transformation, and the development of a broad entrepreneurial culture over the same period, was one of the most important developments in Ireland's economic history. Many of the elements of this culture are still in place but others have run into difficulties. The entrepreneurial culture survived the boom and bust of the dotcom bubble. Even now, in the face of domestic and international crises, I regularly come across small and medium enterprises which want to expand, change direction or get into exports and new lines of business, yet the Government voted down the loan guarantee scheme which Fine Gael introduced last week.

We have investigated the job creation potential in semi-State bodies through our NewERA economic recovery strategy published two years ago by Deputy Coveney. I note the British Prime Minister, Mr. Cameron, has launched a £200 billion investment programme in major infrastructure, with a £50 billion contribution from his Government. Fine Gael's programme for water, broadband and renewable energy, which involves commercial semi-State bodies providing infrastructure facilities and charging commercial rates at the end of their provision, will mean increased attractiveness for investment and job creation, both locally and internationally. Up to 100,000 jobs can be created through that additional infrastructural investment.

I have previously referred to the impact that international education can have on Ireland. The demand for education beyond boundaries has increased hugely in the past several years and is forecast to reach more than 6 million students by 2020. The number of US students attending college overseas increased from 90,000 in 1995 to 250,000 in 2007. Approximately 300,000 international students attended British universities in 2008, paying almost €4 billion in fees. International education contributed €11 billion to the Australian economy in 2009. We are bogged down with visa bureaucracy and restrictions on students entering this country. It is past time that was addressed. These are areas in which we can change the way we do business.

Deputy Bruton will shortly publish a serious document on public service provision and cost. In dealing with the provision and cost of Government, it is essential that we start at the centre and the top. This is why Fine Gael has published our own document on changing the way we do our business, reducing the size of the Dáil and putting the abolition of the Seanad to the people in a referendum. By changing the way this Chamber does its business, we will make it the centre of Irish politics rather than a place where the Government does not want to be.

We want to bring the Dutch health system, which is the best in Europe, to Ireland. We are now told that between €600 million and €1 billion will be cut from our public health service without reference to protecting the front line services that save lives. Fine Gael's health plan, which we call FairCare, will eliminate hospital waiting lists, as was done in Northern Ireland, and will put the patient front and centre by paying hospitals for what they do rather than what they did last year. We will eliminate the unfair two-tier health system by making health insurance affordable for everyone. People will be able to access care on the basis of need rather than wealth. Our new approach is based on a system that is not fantasy and which works in the Netherlands.

We will change politics and the public service. Fine Gael's programme for political reform will start at the centre and the top to ensure the political system never again lets us down so catastrophically as it did in the past few years.

The Government has on many occasions claimed that the recession is at an end. This claim is no longer credible. However, there is a world of difference between the Ireland that will be ground out by the relentless forces of credit starvation, long-term unemployment and emigration and the country that could emerge if we adopt a more decisive, creative and innovative set of solutions which harnesses our entire community to the task. In every city, town and parish in this country, people want to contribute and assist. It is that contribution which gives people a sense of satisfaction. The days of the Celtic tiger are long dead and its values are not the values of the future. People who want to give their time and experience to their communities will pull this country through. This Government has failed absolutely to recognise the intrinsic values that are held deep down by the Irish people and the old meitheal spirit that is part of a tradition based on emigrant trends over two centuries.

The last recession officially ended in 1983 but it took six years before investment in job creation significantly reduced the dole queues. The Government strategy appears to have only two planks: the first is writing whatever cheques are necessary to bail out banks and the second is cutting the budget deficit each year through savage and insensitive cuts. I did not hear a significant proposal of any proportion from the Taoiseach today in his contribution to this macroeconomic debate. These two planks of the Government add up to a strategy of national retrenchment. There is nothing positive, nothing ambitious, nothing creative to restore confidence in Ireland's economic future and nothing that will add any sense of hope or confidence to people out there, who do not see any security up front despite the fact savings continue to accumulate in Irish banks.

We have a very different philosophy, which is that the people's potential can and will flourish here in this country. The Fine Gael plan states that the crisis must be viewed as an opportunity for the political and economic transformation of our country. To do that, we need to focus not just on, as the Taoiseach calls it, fiscal consolidation and on cuts in the cost of Government and the way we deliver public services, but also in the value of those services and by creating an enterprise society.

In the early part of the last century, the Government, led by the forerunner of the party I now lead, created and built the institutions of this State, such as with the establishment of the ESB in 1927, the Shannon scheme at Ardnacrusha in 1929, the dramatic acceleration of rural electrification in 1955 and the air transport liberalisation in the 1980s that launched Ryanair as Europe's largest airline. Now is also a time for re-imagining our economic future. For me, the end game is not the red line or where it is drawn. The end game is a country where pride can be restored, where people have hope and confidence that they can have a future in this country, if that is what they wish, where we can restore sound public finances, where there is a banking system that works and lends credit to business in circumstances where it should, where there is a health system that measures up and is not a black hole opening up and sucking in relentlessly all of the taxes from all areas of Irish society, and where there is an education system that is competitive and able to stand up to measure against the competitive forces of the world.

We pointed out in our plans how we can fund that enterprise society through the sale of assets that are no longer necessary for the future, through a leaner, more skilled banking situation where credit is lent to business, where necessary, and through a re-balancing of the tax system to offer greater support to enterprise, innovation and employment. As I said, a 51% marginal tax rate is much too high.

Fianna Fáil and the Greens, supported by a number of Independents, have led our country to the edge of an economic abyss. It is ironic that within six years of the centenary of the 1916 Rising, which was the beginning of the opportunity for Ireland to have economic independence, the so-called great republicans have led us to a point where there is no credibility, faith or belief in the strategy of this Government to rectify our problems. As I have said before and say again now, it is time to consult the people, time to give them their opportunity and time to have a new mandate. The Government should go. It has failed in its duty, it has broken the trust given to it by the people and it has failed to implement the policy situations which would keep Ireland proud, strong and clear. We should not be the focus of this international recession; we should be but a backwater of it. We are here because of neglect, incompetence, lack of management skills and a failure to recognise that politics is not just about keeping a party in power, it is about people, about a society and about our country. Fine Gael will measure up to that responsibility when the people give us the opportunity.

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