Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Our five-year integrated plan for trade, tourism and investment will create 300,000 jobs and boost exports by one third. This is based on the figures of the IDA and Enterprise Ireland and on the spillover effect that can happen. We must be conveying to the public and investor community that we seek investment income for productive areas of the economy, not only at home but also abroad. If we are to continue to talk about economic corpses and state the country is banjaxed, that we should forget about it and that it will all change when the Opposition gets into power, we will not be productive.

If Deputy Gilmore is the good guy, we must be in bigger trouble than I believed we were in. Certainly, working people will know how the Labour Party dealt with PAYE taxpayers when it was in Government. This is because that party will not take the decisions to cut back on the services when those decisions are necessary. It piled the tax on working people. When Deputy Gilmore asks me to wait until the Labour Party is back in power, he should note that when he was in Government, he taxed people who earned above €7,000. He started taxing people earning €120 per week.

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