Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I am glad to have an opportunity to speak on this legislation. Like everybody else, this Bill is brought before the House out of necessity. It is one of those things that has happened. This country's economy has taken a fearful nose-dive and it is normal to expect everybody to make some kind of contribution in the emergency position in which we find ourselves.

The Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Amendment) Bill clearly illustrates the junction we are at and what we are about. There should be no doubt that it is not easy for anybody, at whatever level their income is pitched, to be told they must make some contribution to the situation we are in and it is important that it be done. It is unfortunate that we have to introduce legislation to do that. One would have thought, as has happened in many cases, that people in a particular position would voluntarily accept that, in the circumstances in which we find ourselves, it would be expected that everybody would make a contribution, particularly those at the higher level. I am not dismissing the fact that people may have commitments and may have liabilities which they entered into in good faith when times were better. That is understandable but the fact remains that everybody else has those commitments as well. People at every level of income throughout our entire economy have previously entered into commitments which impose on them liabilities that are ongoing, and they still have to shoulder the burden in that regard.

It is timely that we do so and accept that we must put our shoulder to the wheel together. That is hugely important. I warn against any attempt to divide society, something that is increasingly populist, to seek political advantage. It is not at all uncommon to pretend there is a different avenue of approach and an easier way out, that somehow we do not have to do these things, and that if a different Administration were in control, there would be a different remedy. That is not so, I am afraid. The situation is much more serious than that, and we should be very careful not to give that false impression. Giving a false impression of a populist nature, as is now the case, will merely undermine public confidence in politics. It is not in the interest of politics, either in opposition or government, that this happens.

I sympathise with the point made by Deputy McGuinness. Members of this House who were in the outgoing Administration obviously want to put clear blue water between themselves and the situation that brought us to where we are now. They want the people to forget and they want to encourage the people into pretending that there is an easier, less painful way out. Where did we hear that before? I have been hearing that since I came into this House many years ago. The fact is that there is no easy way out now. It is a sad sight, but there is no easy way out.

I read an interesting comparison recently. I do not blame the public sector for what has happened in this. The public sector was not the sole culprit in this business. In actual fact, it was the private sector that led us astray, and the public sector followed. That is a fact. The comparison stated that in the ten year period of the boom, the public sector in Germany received an annual wage increase of 1.5%, while in this country the public sector received 100% wage increase over ten years. In other words, there was a 15% increase in Germany, compared with 100% here. That is a rather strange situation. I was not given the same figures for the private sector in Germany during that period, but I understand during the same period, salaries in the private sector in this country went up considerably, to the extent of 300% to 400%. However, the most interesting part is property prices. During the ten year period of the boom, when we were the richest country in the world, property prices in Germany went up by 80% to 90%, whereas in this country they increased by more than 400%. If we ever want to find out what was going wrong, we have to look back and ask ourselves what in God's name was going on.

We are now reaping the bitter harvest of those halcyon days. They were happy-go-lucky days when there would be no tomorrow and nobody would ever have to pay back. Everybody indulged and everybody was encouraged to indulge. Everybody was misled simply because there was an end coming and it was coming up short.

There are those who say that the people should forget about all this, but I do not think they will. They are going to think about it for a long time. They will think about it every time they stick their hands in their pocket and contribute to what has happened. The public will think again and again. We have experts advising us day and night, wall to wall, floor to ceiling, on radio and television and everywhere else. Their advice purports to suggest that they knew this was wrong all the time and they pointed it out. They did not point it out. They did nothing about it. They gorged themselves on what was happening at the time. They said it was great, joined in the applause and cheered on for more.

I was listening to an Opposition spokesperson, from the outgoing Administration, saying that his Government had invited the then Opposition to inspect the books, to show them what was there, and that they saw it all. We did not see it all. We could not see it all because they did not know what was in the books themselves. It was not until the IMF came in to tell them all about it that they recognised the true position. I just cannot believe that this nonsense was going on. The make believe is still rampant. There are still people in this country suggesting that it does not have to be this way at all and that there is a softer option. Do Members of the Opposition remember the soft landing they were telling us about not too long ago? Do they remember the soft landing for the economy? It turned into a crash landing, with a very heavy thud, and the reverberations will continue for a long time.

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