Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

This country's best days are ahead of it. This country's economy has great strengths. I agree with some of the things the Taoiseach has said in the House today, that, for example, our exports are growing and that this is a good country in which to do business. I believe we will get through the economic crisis the country is now facing. I believe also that the majority of people in this country want to put their shoulder to the wheel to help us do that.

We have a big problem, namely, that there is no sense that anybody is in charge. I am not sure why the Taoiseach made this statement today. I am not sure what it adds to the sense of confidence or lack of it in the country. It certainly does not add anything to clarity about what is happening at the moment to our finances and in regard to discussions that are taking place with Europe.

In the course of the past fortnight we have seen a dramatic increase in the cost of borrowing for the State. It reached a peak of approximately 9% last week. It still remains at approximately 8% today which is really at crisis levels. That is the market sentiment. That is what the Taoiseach calls irrational. That is where we are at after, as the Taoiseach has said, budgetary adjustments of the order of €14 billion to €15 billion have been made already. An announcement has been made by Government that it is committed to saving another €15 billion, €6 billion of it in the coming year. It comes shortly after a statement by Government that we had got the final figure for the money that was to go into the banks. The Taoiseach has acknowledged that it is also in a context where the main Opposition parties are committed to getting our deficit down to the targets that were agreed with the European Commission.

It is manifestly clear that the markets are not responding to all of the signals coming from this country. It is clear that they are not responding because they do not see the problem as purely a public finance or budgetary issue. They see a country where the banks have been tied at the hip to the State as a result of the bank guarantee that was introduced in September 2008. In addition, they have also lost confidence in the Government, as indeed have the people.

The Taoiseach has referred to the problem as being a general European one. I accept there is a European problem. Europe has a responsibility to work with this country to resolve the problem. I accept that the issue does not relate solely to the Irish national interest. The reality is that it is this country which is now at the apex of that storm. It is Ireland that is at the centre of international attention and is the story in all of the various media. In that context, there is a responsibility on Government to clarify what is happening. That has not happened in the House today. What we got over the weekend was a series of qualified denials from Ministers and official sources. There have been stories, speculation and ponderings in the international media and comments from European Central Bank sources about hypothetical talks. We need to know what has happened. The Taoiseach has told us that there have been discussions at official level but that no Ministers have been involved. We must take that at face value. It is astonishing that given what has been happening over the course of the weekend and in recent days that there would not have been direct ministerial involvement in the discussions that have been taking place. There is speculation that this country is in bailout territory as far as the European institutions and our banks are concerned. That is adding to the worries people already have.

People have been affected directly by the crisis that has occurred. More than 400,000 people are out of work. Many people have lost businesses. Many businesses are not able to access credit from the banking institutions. Large numbers of people have mortgages. Many of them are in negative equity and are worried about how they will pay. In addition to the worry of families that are seeing their children, many of them well educated, having to emigrate in order to make a future for themselves, people are now seriously worried about the future of the country's economy and finances and its economic sovereignty and independence. There is a mood across the country that we are about to lose our economic independence if in fact we have not already done so. There is a responsibility on the Taoiseach and the Government to address that in an upfront way. His statement does not do that.

It is not just what is happening now. It is the sequence of things that have happened. We can go back over the history of how the Government managed or mismanaged the economy. We can go back over the decision on the bank guarantee which the Taoiseach told us would not cost the taxpayer anything. We now know the consequence of that. We can go back over the mistake and tragedy it was to provide the guarantee to Anglo Irish Bank and the Irish Nationwide Building Society and the consequences that has had for the banking system, the country and the economy.

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