Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)

I sat in this Chamber yesterday for most of the day listening to the various contributions, the first of which was given by the Taoiseach. I was very disappointed with the blandness of his contribution and that there was so little help held out for the hundreds of thousands of people who are in the most serious economic difficulties they have experienced in their lives. I was also amazed that the Taoiseach's speech started in 2008 and that there was no mention or recognition - not one word in his speech - about what happened before 2008. There is a collective political amnesia on the other side of the House. One can mention anything, but one cannot go back further than 2008.

At that time the Government and its predecessor organised the greatest national binge that was organised by any Government in the world. We were all on the pig's back and were led to believe the pig would run forever and not stop.

Even the media were taken into the loop. The national newspapers and magazines we picked up at the weekend celebrated the excesses of this country, the hundreds of millions of euro spent on hotels to knock them down, handbags for €5,000 plus - one would not look at it if it was less - and champagne that cost €2,000 and €3,000 a bottle. This is what we celebrated, and there was no acknowledgement or regret expressed by the Taoiseach, or, indeed, by anyone from that side of the House. I will not dwell on it any longer except to say that there are persons out there who organised this crisis.

I have been in this House for a long time, probably longer than any other Member present - even the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I do not remember any Opposition at any time over the past 25 or 30 years which acted as responsibly and as patriotically as this Opposition. Whether it is the Labour Party, Fine Gael or the Independents, we all have bought in to the crisis and we all have more or less agreed on the parameters of the adjustments that must be carried out.

The people, in spite of all the suffering and difficulties, such as the 22,000 unemployed and the hundreds of young couples in my constituency and, indeed, all over the country who are in negative equity, know that there will be pain and suffering, but they want fairness. When they see the wives of developers have property signed over to them - houses, yachts, aeroplanes and jets costing millions of euro - to escape paying their fair share and when they see some of those who were in charge of the banks and financial institutions still enjoying the corporate life to which they had been accustomed, they ask why they must sacrifice and suffer when those persons are still there. I include the Government in that regard.

In whatever cuts that must be made, I appeal to the Government to look after the capital programme. This programme is an investment in the future of this country and we should build roads, schools and health centres now. We must provide employment for the 450,000 or 460,000 unemployed in this country as it is an investment for the future. We should keep our engineers, architects and quantity surveyors at home and give them employment instead of them having to go to Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as is happening every day in the case of my neighbours in Donegal and, I am sure, the neighbours of every Member. The Government should maintain the capital programme and spare the elderly, the sick and those who contributed to the country in the past.

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