Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

With the agreement of the House, I will share my time with Deputy Paschal Donohoe.

I am delighted to have an opportunity to speak on this Bill. Unlike other Deputies, whom I have listened to for the past two days, I believe the country has achieved a great deal in a very short space of time. We have achieved credibility, internationally and nationally. Our people have achieved a sense of resilience and have stood up and made decisions in recent times in very difficult circumstances. They made those decisions on the basis that they were the right as opposed to the convenient decisions, and that they were in the interests of themselves and their country. We have also stood up internationally and shown the way to many others.

For those reasons, the people expect certain things to follow. I do not agree with the analysis from those on the other side of the House that austerity, misery and continuous depression are the order of the day. The word "austerity" occurs in their every conversation. If it does not occur, it is invented.

At this stage, it does not matter how we got to where we are, but we are here. Given the position we are in, we must do certain things. The previous speaker referred to the former Minister for Finance, the late Brian Lenihan. He was in an appallingly difficult situation. He might have spoken to anyone, but the eventual decision was his. We must not forget that. He took a courageous and difficult decision at the time. He accepted responsibility for private, public and all kinds of debts. He gave sovereign approval to debts that had not been incurred on behalf of the State.

In everything that happened during the boom time, borrowing and lending criteria were laid down and they carried the imprimatur of the institutions of the State. They carried the guaranteed Irish symbol and an implied approval. I do not want to go into who did or did not do what and when. Things happened. Some Deputies on the other side of the House spend their time telling us these things were not done on their behalf. Unfortunately, they were. The people also gave approval. They did so three times in three general elections, the last one in 2007.

However we look at things, we were in a difficult situation and we had to work our way out of it. I knew the Minister well, as did other Members of the House at the time. He was in a difficult situation and he took a decision. That is what he had to do. Whichever decision he took, whether it was right or wrong, there would have been consequences. If we had defaulted, there would have been consequences downstream for our national and international credibility. If we did not, as was the case, there are consequences. We must accept responsibility, as we are doing, and move on from there.

What worries me most at this stage is that I listen every morning to a tirade of misery, negativity, ullagone and more of it. I hear that we are broke, that we are going nowhere, we have austerity and that there is an international conspiracy to do us down. I worry about the impact that is having on society. The voting public took a decision last week. Its decision was not based on fear. It was based on a value judgment. The public did not like to do the job it did. It does not like it, and we do not like having to do the job that is now thrust upon us, but the public did it and did it in the knowledge that we are not in an easy or risk-free situation. We are at a crossroads. We have a great opportunity to influence what happens in the European arena. As a country we have a great opportunity to focus on the issue that should be focused on throughout the European Union, both within the eurozone and without. The whole European project is weakened without the renewal of that focus.

I recall the meetings I had back in the early 1980s when I visited Brussels and met what remained of the then founding fathers of the European project and the degree to which and the passion with which they acclaimed their vision of Europe. That has changed. As my colleague, Deputy Donohoe, is aware, we spoke earlier today in the Joint Committee on European Affairs about how that focus has gone and things have changed. Renationalisation has emerged. I predict without any doubt that if the various European countries both in the eurozone area and without revert to individualisation and each one fends for itself we will end up in a serious position. By the same token, if we pretend we are not Europeans, that we can demand from Europe at will and expect a response on the basis that we are a small, poor country – we were the richest country in the world a couple of years ago – and we pretend to go down that road, our bluff will be called because every other European country will do the likewise. Never more so than at times of economic stress is it important for people to recognise the global position, the bigger picture and to cease to focus on their own small backyard patch. This is not the time for parochialism.

In the two minutes remaining, you will be pleased to know, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I will not go into all the debate which we discussed in the past three months because I do not think it is necessary. The issue has been debated ad nauseam. What we need to do now is to work with what we have, continue to put our shoulders to the wheel, stop whingeing and moaning about it and acknowledge that our people are carrying a heavy burden. It is important to them that we do that. We cannot, however, be portrayed nationally and internationally in the manner in which some Members - who will remain nameless but who are essentially on the opposite side of the House - have done so, whereby we are deemed to be incapable of recognising business reality and putting in place the measures necessary to ensure our recovery. Far from that, we should set out the grounds on which we can assist and motivate other countries throughout the European Union towards the kind of recovery that is needed.

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