Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

The last two people to whom I spoke on the day in July when the Dáil adjourned for the summer were my party leader and Deputy Coveney. I told them this country would be declared bankrupt within a month of our return to this House at the end of the summer. When representatives of the Labour Party and Fine Gael were going in to get a glimpse of the books, I did not realise they would confirm that was the case. It is incredible, after five years as a Member of this House, that I remember a statement which was made in May 2005. I cannot give the exact date. My party's then finance spokesman, Deputy Bruton, said things were going wrong.

All 166 Members of this House deal with the same people. At that time, we were beginning to get the message that spending was stopping, jobs were being cut and the finances were getting out of control. What happened? The Taoiseach went into a cupboard and brought everybody else with him. They did not have to go with him. Last week, Deputy Chris Andrews tried to tell the people that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are the same. We are not the same. The Deputy has a mind of his own. He could have stayed out of the cupboard of the then Taoiseach and faced up to what was happening.

We had a surplus of money. We could have put some away, but we did not. The election came along and promises were made on the basis of a false economy. As Deputy Brian Hayes rightly said, we have ended up with our young people having to take to the boats. At least those who are leaving are educated. That they have to leave is an insult to parents and grandparents who devoted every penny they had to ensuring their children and grandchildren would have an education in case things went wrong. In the past five years, every time we tabled questions to Ministers, we did not receive answers because Ministers were not prepared to take responsibility for their own Departments.

I would like to conclude by talking about County Meath, which has been left without a hospital service. I appeal to men, women and children of all ages to descend on Navan at 3 p.m. this Saturday to show their disgust and to protest at the manner in which the people of Meath have been treated. The Minister, Deputy Harney, originally asked the HSE to blame the staff, but we have finally learned the truth, which is that she pursued a policy of closing all local hospitals. That was supposed to happen after the construction of a new hospital, but the hospital in question has not been built. As a Meath person, I call on every man, woman and child to come to Navan to protest not only about the closure of the local hospital but also about the removal of services, jobs and school building programmes, etc.

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