Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

Rather than us asking the Germans to give us an extra €1 billion to put on our credit cards we should be saying that Ireland is a cheap competitive place to visit, we welcome Germans, they love Ireland, they should come over here, we will give them a good time, and we will take their money and give good value for it. That is the way it should be. We should be trying to develop good ways of investing German money rather than paying them interest for the privilege of overspending. In saying that, I do not buy into the argument that we, as a country, spent way beyond our means and it had nothing to do with the banks and the politicians; it did.

However, our costs are far above those of others. Look at our neighbours in Northern Ireland. Their social welfare rates are a fraction of ours. I have told this anecdote previously, that if one goes to a garage or a hotel in Northern Ireland, one meets a Northern Irish person. One does not meet Poles or Latvians, who are very capable hardworking people. Nevertheless, in the tourism industry people want an Irish experience. The reason there is an Irish experience in the North is partly because Northern Ireland has a lower standard of living, but it also means Northern Ireland has a lower cost of living. By and large, it is cheaper to support one's family and to buy goods and services in the North than it is down here and, therefore, Northerners can have a lower income.

We need to stop imagining that we are the high-flying, free-spending Celtic cubs. We are not any more. We are, at best, like the Spaniards. We are a mid-level, middle-income rich country. We are far richer than those in sub-Saharan Africa, which is why I still support the fact that we are continuing to contribute to overseas development aid at a reasonable rate but we are not a rich country to the extent we thought we were.

In that context, given that the national minimum wage was increased six times since 2000, this one adjustment is not the worst that can happen. I believe Deputy English mentioned that 2007 was the last time the minimum wage was increased. That was just before Lehman Brothers collapsed. It was when Ireland was still an economy booming on the overspill of the boom years of stamp duty revenue and when the service industry was still going strong. It was when we were going over the cliff like one of those Road Runner movies, not realising the ground had fallen beneath our feet. At that stage, the minimum wage increased to its highest level.

National income has declined and we are still paying back our debts, and if we are cutting everyone's pay, then, in line with social welfare cuts, the minimum wage needs to be cut as well. It is not nice to say. However, we hope that the price of goods and services continues to decline. There is marked evidence that they have. In the consumer price index, since 2008 there has been a 7% decrease overall in the price of general goods and services. The price of some products, such as petrol, has increased but, in general, prices have fallen.

How many minutes do I have left?

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