Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

----- with a fresh five-year mandate. Those who have been in charge of the country the past 13 years have ruined the economy. They created the problems and are unable to resolve them. The chauffeur driven cavalcade of Ministers to Farmleigh this week shows just how out of touch they are with the recession-hit lives of ordinary people throughout the length and breadth of the island.

Hope, vision and leadership can only come from a Labour Party led Government which has the interests of the ordinary people of the country at heart and will regain their confidence. A Labour Party led Government will ensure that the full rigours of the law would be brought to bear on those responsible for this amount of collapse with imprisonment the penalty for the main perpetrators. It is essential that justice is done and seen to be done where white collar criminal antisocial behaviour is involved. We would review existing commercial law with a view to strengthening investigative powers and increasing penalties. Our Labour Party led Government would introduce an effective regulatory framework for our financial institutions.

The current Government's budgetary policy of front-loading cuts across the board is flawed because it squeezes money out of the economy, reduces spending and consumer confidence and deflates the economy. Its assumption that the crisis is a global one and that once world trade picks up Ireland will be able to export itself out of the recession is flawed. Ireland retained a substantial export surplus of €39 billion in 2009 over 2008 figures according to recent CSO figures. Yet, Ireland remained in recession.

Figures provided by the Irish Exporters Association to date indicate a healthy export market in 2010 but there appears to be little or no impact on the economy or employment. Foreign direct investment produces high volumes of exports in pharmaceutical and information technology goods and they are holding up well. However, they produce a poor return on jobs created and tax garnered. The recent revelation that Google made €3 billion extra profit because it was able to manipulate the Irish corporation tax regime to such an extent that instead of paying the exceedingly low 12.5% corporation tax is only paid 2.5% is totally unacceptable. It is a scandal and it has to be dealt with. The Labour Party in Government would ensure that no foreign or domestic business paid less than 12.5% corporation tax.

Export led growth is not the panacea that the Government expects and it has little effect on employment unless indigenous small and medium enterprises can get involved. Our small and medium enterprises are starved of credit and find it difficult to survive at the current time. The Labour Party in Government would target that sector through our new proposed strategic investment bank, availing of the European investment bank funds. We would ensure that small and medium enterprises were sufficiently funded to retain the existing workforce of 800,000, which is well over 50%, and expand into new enterprises and markets including overseas markets in emerging countries which would create real worth and real jobs.

State capital funding would be directed into labour-intensive projects that would breathe new life into the construction industry. Urban regeneration projects, school building projects, while energy, retrofitting, public transport projects and wind and wave renewable energy projects are ready to go. They are only awaiting a stimulus package which the Labour Party would provide by cherry-picking the national development plan and capital investment programme.

The extent of the recession is evidenced by the fact that the haulage of goods throughout the country declined from 246,000 tonnes in 2008 to only 148,000 tonnes in 2009 according to recent CSO figures. This marks a colossal drop of 40% in a single year. The distribution of goods throughout the country is a very good indication of the state of the economy. The economy is not just flat, it is in freefall. Our stimulus package for small and medium enterprises and our capital funding for labour-intensive projects would rapidly pick the country out of the recession and restore consumer confidence.

In the meantime, while this Government remains in office we must seek to protect the less well off, the 450,000 social welfare recipients on the live register, including the 100,000 on disability, and those on low wages and the minimal wage. Ireland remains a wealthy country. Any new taxes must be directed at 33,000 Celtic millionaires, or what is left of them, the 400,000 tax exiles and those with salaries and pensions above €100,000. The new 48% tax which the Labour Party proposes can raise close to €500 million and should be introduced with for those who are well off.

The 148 tax reliefs identified by the Commission on Taxation, which have been recently estimated amount to approximately €11 billion annually, need to be reviewed urgently. Property tax relief should be abolished entirely. If we take 50,000 people off the live register it will save the State €1 billion annually. There are 288,000 people who have lost their jobs since 2007. Clearly, a restoration of the 2007 figures would amount to approximately €6 billion which would be €6 billion less of a burden on the social welfare system.

There can be substantial savings from the Croke Park agreement. It is high time the Government put in place mechanisms to quantify and achieve the savings. Unfortunately, the Government has taken no action to date on any of these issues. It is rudderless and leaderless. It is incapable of action and can only claim to seek consensus on the way forward from the Opposition at the 11th hour of its term in office. The Fianna Fáil and Green Party coalition cannot do the job and should step down.

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