Niall Collins (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this topical and important debate. As practising public representatives, we all have to face one eventuality, which is an election. Whether it happens in a few weeks or a few months, we will have to deal with as a matter of fact. That is the way it is in our profession. We will have to face the people based on our own track records and ask them to give us a new mandate. Hopefully, we will all be back in the new Dáil, although it will probably have a different configuration. We can then debate the issues from different sides of the House, which is what is being indicated by the opinion polls. Opposition Members will soon experience the responsibility of being in a Government party. They will have to take tough responsible decisions, which impact on themselves, their families, their communities and the people they represent. It is not easy but it has to be done in the national interest.

Many of our debates are clouded by populism and domestic political positioning, which is regrettable. We must move away from that to look at the bigger picture, which is how we will pull ourselves out of the position we are in and how we will position ourselves on the world stage and get Ireland back to the position it enjoyed globally in the good years. The Government was right early in November to set out a sequence of events and then publish the four year national recovery plan, announce the budget and hold the election in the new year. It does not matter whether the election is called in January, February, March or April. We should have a long debate on the budget and the finance Bill and then have the election. I concur with previous speakers who stated we cannot guillotine or rush the passage of the Bill. We often hear a chorus of opposition to the guillotining of legislation. We cannot have it both ways. We are either in favour of guillotining legislation or we are not.

The national recovery plan has a number of positive aspects, particularly the funding of local authorities. The proposals for site valuations and water charges will put local government on a sustainable, independent financial footing. Over the years, local election campaigns have focused on national issues, which is wrong. Local issues are not debated and if we elect people to local government, we should give them the ability to raise revenue for which they would be accountable to the local electorate. That has sadly been absent in local government for a long time. Through the national recovery plan, we will hopefully see a shift away from a national focus at local election time to purely concentrating on local issues.

The minimum wage has also been mentioned. We have to bear in mind that about 4% of the workforce are currently being paid the minimum wage. That does not represent many people, but the point has been made that we have the second highest minimum wage in Europe and that it is a barrier to generating new employment. If reducing our minimum wage will create additional employment at weekends, among students and in service industries in particular, then that is a good move. The agencies that are involved in monitoring this have been telling us this for a long time. I particularly welcome the commitment in the four year plan to overhaul the employment regulation orders, the JLCs and the structures whereby premiums have to be paid at weekends. That is placing a severe disadvantage on businesses that operate on a seven day week basis. These changes will allow them accrue a degree of competitiveness that they have been lacking.

Our banking situation has rightly been a great source of anger among the people. We thought last September that we had parked our position on banking following the banking announcement. We knew what the issue was, we had put a figure on it and we thought that we could deal with it. Unfortunately, it has deteriorated again and people are very angry and concerned, particularly when they see the salaries that top bankers are being paid. Now that we are moving into a position where the two banks are moving into almost total State ownership, we have to look at the fundamental wage structure of our senior bankers and the salary levels they are being paid. It just cannot continue. People are beside themselves with anger when they see the exorbitant salaries that they are being paid and the state of our banks. We must move to address that issue. No banker in any of the main banks which are State owned should be paid a salary higher than that of the Taoiseach. The Taoiseach of the day should be paid the highest salary in the public sector. People in the ESB and Bord Gais and other commercial State agencies should not be paid their current salaries. None of them should be paid more than the Taoiseach.

Much debate has centred around why we have not defaulted and burned the bondholders. It is worth noting that Argentina defaulted in 2001 and since then they have been unable to gain access to the bond market. That is food for thought. Many academics and celebrity economists are appearing on talk shows and they have all the solutions, but they do not have any responsibility and they are looking at a narrow focus. Unfortunately, we have to take decisions that impact on all society. Argentina burned the bondholders in 2001 and they are still living with the consequences of it because they are locked out of the bond market.

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