Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)

I am delighted to support this motion and it gives the House an opportunity to debate the biggest issue facing the Irish people, the upcoming budget. People are looking forward in fear and with anger in some cases and they want to know what will happen in the future. They do not know what will happen to themselves or their families. All they have heard from radio and television programmes and from newspapers over the past weeks and months, is doom and gloom. There is doom and gloom about the way we have managed our country. Many people use words such as "unbelievable" and "bizarre". They cannot understand how we let our country go. Was the political system at fault? The politicians are being blamed but we have to change the way we do business and how we look after our country.

The views of the Opposition have not been taken seriously in the past. Over the past number of years I have listened to the Budget Statement in the House and the Government says one thing while the Opposition says something else. It is the same in this debate tonight. Where was the Government of this country over the past number of years? Its members were outside this House dealing with trade unions, with farmers and with business people but not consulting this House. This is one of the main reasons the people of Ireland were not listened to. We could not contribute until the decisions were made. Whatever issue was being dealt with, it could be guaranteed that the then Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, would be out somewhere on a Friday announcing a new policy and this House would not be consulted. This was wrong and in my view, it was not democratic. We need to change that practice.

Deputy Mary O'Rourke is an experienced politician and she has told the House tonight that the unemployment figures are falling. I wonder if this woman is for real and if she is living in the real world. Thousands of people have left this country. Two hundred thousand people have left for Australia, America and New Zealand and then the Deputy says that the unemployment figures have steadied. How daft is Deputy O'Rourke to think that? I am surprised that a person of her experience would say that in the House. She should be ashamed of herself. It is unfair because every day and every week, these young people are leaving the country.

Next week when the budget is announced, we have to give the people of Ireland some hope. We have to give them the belief that something will happen. We have to give them a road to recovery, a road that will lead them somewhere so that we can make this country competitive. We must use the country's natural resources to create employment and agriculture is one such resource. I come from a very strong agricultural county and I know there is a willingness and resourcefulness in the agricultural community to create jobs. The food industry is crying out for expansion. We must face the future with confidence rather than having Deputies saying daft things in this House like that lady said tonight.

Whatever the Government does next week, it has to point the way forward to show that this is a good country and that we have highly educated people so that all the people who have left our shores will come back and this country's prosperity will be restored.

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