Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I thank my learned colleague who is very experienced, as we saw on a television programme, and quite excellent. I will promote his CD for Christmas if I can. Certainly, we all should phone a friend and try to move them on.

Deputy Durkan also stated that one learns something every day. We certainly do, and it has been a steep learning curve since the IMF came in. I believe it should have been in at least a year before it arrived.

Regarding what Deputy Durkan stated, there were budgets over the past four years when I was sitting here as a backbencher. The first two were fairly generous, but all the time the Members sitting opposite got up and complained it was not enough. They said we did not give enough of an increase - we did not give enough of this or enough of that. Collectively, Deputies on all sides of this House are responsible, as are the previous ones, many of whom are gone off into the sunset with their big pensions. I might say a word about that too, if I am allowed, with the indulgence of my colleague and good friend in the Chair.

The Opposition looked for more all the time and that is what happened. It was auction politics. Someone referred to the use of easy-auction politics and someone else referred yesterday to the car tax being removed in 1977. Fianna Fáil removed it but Fine Gael was going to halve it, and I was only a buachaill óg. I was out putting up posters. We were delighted. I only had a Honda 50 on which the tax was low anyway. A Honda 50 gets you around. I never thought I would get as far as I am now, but it could go back very fast too and it could be that I will never again be here. While I am here, I will say what I want to say.

Auction politics were very serious, and it continued repeatedly. The Minister for Economic Planning and Development, Mr. Martin O'Donoghue, and others built castles in the sky and everything else, but we never thought of the rainy day. We forgot about the rainy day, certainly in the past seven or eight years. Many people out there did not, though, and they are the ones I meet now - Deputy Durkan referred to them also - who have a few bob. They do not have a great deal, enough to bury themselves and be comfortable if something happens to them or they become ill because one cannot get into hospital unless one has some money. They want to know if their money is safe in the post office, the bank or wherever. I cannot advise them because we are at the behest of the predatory sharks of the money markets.

As for our own banks, we never hear of bank robberies now because all the robberies are going on inside in the banks. They robbed the people blue. I spoke to a lady only half an hour ago. She is a business person, along with her husband, and was on her way to the bank this morning with a €500 cheque in an envelope to drop into the quick lodge. She got a fairly nasty telephone call on the way, from a person doing his or her job, stating that she was €200 overdrawn since midnight owing to whatever cheques had not gone through. Imagine it. These are the banks that we insisted lend €3 billion each last year and the year before they had half the €3 billion each. We call them the two pillar banks. I do not know what I would call them. They are not pillar banks anyway, and they have not a shred of decency among them. I refer not to the ordinary staff, but to the boys in control.

That is the kind of harassment that is going on of those who are trying to make a living, trying to stay in business and trying to keep afloat. As the Minister will be aware, that is the kind of intimidation that is going on.

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