Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute on this debate. This is a budget of severe cuts across many headings and those losing out will need time to assess its impact fully. Far from the transparency promised by Fine Gael and Labour in opposition, their first opportunity to present a budget has given us a slew of stealth taxes and increased charges wrapped in a Christmas stocking. This budget is far from a gift for most people on low incomes. It is a ticking time bomb that will decimate the lives of many families.

Prior to being elected, the two Government parties made much of the necessity to rekindle economic activity. They set jobs at the forefront of their assault on the economic downturn. They promised a jobs budget but delivered a so-called jobs initiative. So much for all that bluff and bluster about the creation of jobs. In the past seven months, the Government has failed abjectly to halt job losses and to create new jobs. It has been schizophrenic in respect of the introduction of VAT. As part of its jobs initiative in May, it sought to create jobs by reducing VAT. Now it is telling the House that it can increase VAT without impacting on jobs or economic activity. The Department of Finance does not seem to understand that price elasticity means a lack of return for the State. The jobs initiative, jobs budget or jobs programme is in tatters and requires a greater level of foresight and action than we have seen to date.

The Labour Party cynically promised retailers that, if it was elected to office, it would resolve the so-called issue of upward-only rent reviews. While in opposition, Labour Ministers promised to address this issue retrospectively. At the time, Labour trumpeted its claim that there were no constitutional issues, a case supported by the legal advice it sought from a senior counsel. Was that opinion provided by a senior counsel who is now the Attorney General? If so, what has changed significantly since then?

Fine Gael made much of its NewERA proposals and the 110,000 jobs that would follow. The budget was silent on this matter and none of the Government's proposals to date justify Fine Gael's outlandish job creation claims. Many young people voted for Fine Gael and Labour on the basis of the commitments given. They have been disappointed a number of times and have been traumatised by this budget, given the Government's lack of ability to create jobs.

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, outlined his plans to create jobs through investment in infrastructure. He stated that he had spent some time reading the Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil budget proposals. He indicated that he had found them vague and that Fianna Fáil's document was open to different interpretations in various parts of the country so that members of my party could claim that, if they were in power, they would support certain projects. This is not correct. The Minister indicated that all we had set aside was an additional €250 million, but this is not the case either. I urge him to read the document in greater detail.

We proposed a fund based on a mandatory total investment of 5% by private pension funds over five years, an average of 1% per annum, and a matching investment by the National Pensions Reserve Fund, NPRF, from its discretionary portfolio. This would allocate a potential €7.2 billion for investment on a commercial basis in infrastructural opportunities and would be separate from the public capital programme. The size of the fund could be further enhanced by allowing regular savers to invest in it in a manner similar to that of the national solidarity bond and by attracting additional market funding where available. This programme would not impact on the general government deficit and would provide the appropriate level of funding to give a stimulus to infrastructural investment and activity.

The Minister has considerable neck to make such statements. He tries to play a cool, clean hero espousing new politics over the smoke and mirrors of the past. Were he to review some of his comments and his party's pledges prior to the last election, he might learn a thing or two. Was it not Deputy Leo Varadkar who said that none of the banks would be given another penny until bondholders, including senior bondholders, had taken a haircut? He made that statement in clear and unambiguous terms. In the budget document six weeks prior to the last election, Fine Gael indicated it would generate €1 billion in non-pay and administrative savings. I wonder what happened. Fine Gael has not been so creative or able to generate the same savings on this occasion. It sounds like old politics to me and if the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, is prepared to debate it, he should come into the House and we would be happy to challenge him.

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