Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Today I begin a very important discussion and debate in this House regarding a four year plan which was published yesterday by the Government. I said then and now reiterate that it is part of a three-pronged strategy for the immediate period ahead, which is important for this country's vital national interests. It relates to the passing of a budget on 7 December and to the first instalment of the implementation of a programme that will not only bring order to our public finances, which is a prerequisite for growth, investment and confidence externally and domestically, but is also about a growth strategy as part of that process.

It is true to say the challenge we face is something we have not had to look at for many years, possibly for as much as a quarter of a century. The sort of correction we have to face is greatly exacerbated by an external international environment, not only in terms of economic prospects but fundamentally. The financial architecture that underpins our economic system worldwide has gained greatly in importance since our world has become far more interconnected and interdependent than was the case even 25 years ago, with capital and trade flows of a far greater volume and a far greater degree of sophistication than was then the case.

It is clear to all of us that this country has, by the provision of this plan, a signpost and a pathway to recovery which is within the recent experience of our people. The fear and uncertainty, the real concern and worry were exacerbated in many respects by some elements of what I would regard as irresponsible commentary. It was feeding a frenzy of doubt and creating a spiral of increased worry and concern rather than resolving or analysing in a dispassionate way the very serious problems we face as a country. The announcement yesterday of this plan gives people an opportunity to see what the level of adjustment will be in their own lives, to plan ahead for the future and to do so with a greater degree of confidence than in the absence of such a plan.

There are a number of things to be said about this plan and about where our people now stand in regard to the nation's business. Everybody knows from their own household budget experience that a country cannot continue in the same way in the aftermath of a serious crisis, the likes of which we have not seen, one of such magnitude and global impact that it has been compared to the Wall Street crash of 1929. That was the occurrence back in autumn 2008 which is still reverberating around the world. It is important to point out that from their own household experience people know that one cannot go on with a situation if one's revenues are back to what one earned in 2003 but one's spend is up to date in 2010 terms. People know that is not a sustainable position and, therefore, they want to know how the country can change that situation in terms of national finances and bring about a state of balance. They need to have, in some detail, an idea of how that might be done. Whatever people want in terms of the plan's detail, however, they understand the framework. They understand that the idea behind this plan is that our taxation system needs reform and we need to see increased levels of taxation coming into the national Exchequer to bring income for national purposes up to levels of the order of what we had in 2006. We also know that the level of spend in our economy has to reduce to levels people saw around 2007. That adjustment, or that closing of the accordion effect, in terms of people's understanding of what is happening, will enable people to see from their own recent experience that this does not mean they have to go back to a lifestyle or a living similar to, say, 25 years ago when, clearly, the quality of life and the standard of living we had at that time was very different from this generation's experience.

What it means, what we can glean from that understanding, is that many of the important economic and social gains we have seen under successive Governments in the previous ten or 15 years before this crisis can be maintained. There are inherent gains. Investments were made which are still with us. Sometimes the portrayal of the very serious crisis we have to confront is understood to mean that everything went out with the sea, or that all that we did was a wasteful experience from which we obtained no community, social or economic gain. That is a very misrepresentative view, a very fallacious and exaggerated view of the problems we have to face. I do not diminish those problems for a moment.

People need to know about the investments we have made in our education system, in improving our transport infrastructure and in our research and development community, the research we have done in industrial promotion and the far more diversified economy we now have. The fact is that 1.86 million go to work in this country in the aftermath of a crisis, two and a half years on from something which hit us so hard over the following two years, almost, people felt, with an economic tsunami effect. There was a reduction in output of 15% and we saw people's standard of living reduce. It hit us in terms of a crisis in confidence, given the incremental improvements we had seen year on year in the previous period. Many of those gains in infrastructural terms can be maintained. Similarly, without going into an economic history lesson because we want to focus on the present and the future, the election campaign will give us an opportunity to go over some of those issues again in more detail. However, it is also important to point out that during those good times, as a country, reflecting societal views and values, we ensured that those on the lower end of the scale benefitted. We improved our pension provisions and made sure we brought in assistants to help our teachers and mainstream those with disabilities into our education system. We are spending more than €1 billion of our €8 billion education budget to ensure that those people are integrated into our system and have potential and prospects to live inclusive lives. That may not have been the case in a prior era of institutionalisation and lack of resources, with a far less enlightened culture. There are so many things that have improved, qualitatively and quantitatively All that said, we believe this plan offers the best prospects upon which to build the four annual budgets needed to get us through this crisis with growth, jobs and support for those in the productive private sector. Ultimately, we must look to such people for net job creation as we reform our public services, not because we devalue or diminish their importance and that of those working in such services, but because we need an affordable model in future with the necessary reforms outlined. That will secure the future for ourselves and our children.

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