Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

The Tánaiste is correct to ask for constructive questions and contributions to this debate. Perhaps the Tánaiste agrees that it is very difficult to take seriously the castigation and criticism by Fianna Fáil when it has not got down on bended knee and asked for forgiveness from the people of this country for what it has done to them. I refer to Fianna Fáil's major culpability in dragging this country to the edge of the abyss. Members and the rest of the country can start to take them seriously when they admit to their crimes. We will pass on from political point scoring but it makes me retch to hear them criticise anyone, given what they have done.

In an effort to be constructive, it is not doom and gloom to question the continuing policy of bailing out the banks. It is continuing to bail out the banks and asking ordinary people to pay for this in the form of cutbacks and austerity that is closing off the road to economic recovery. Is that not obviously a fact? Austerity started with the last Government and was imposed for two years but it did not work. When Deputy Gilmore was in opposition, he made that point. These measures contracted the economy, as the latest IMF figures confirm. At the weekend, Dr. Joseph Stiglitz confirmed that the more we go down this road, the more the economy contracts and reduces the possibility of future economic growth, which is the only thing that can get us out of this mess.

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