Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Sometimes I reel at the brass neck of Fianna Fáil. Why are we reducing the capital programme? Why are we reducing expenditure at all? We are doing it because Fianna Fáil ruined us. Under the programme that the previous Government set before we came into office, a deficit of 2.9% had to be reached by 2014. As a result of our negotiations with the troika, that has been pushed back to 2015. The level of cuts and expenditure would have been much deeper, of necessity, if Fianna Fáil had stayed in office. Taxes would be much higher, of necessity, than those we have negotiated. That is the reality we have faced. As I have said, this Government's economic strategy has three strands. First, we must work towards a balanced budget. We are doing that incrementally and with great difficulty. It will be done by 2015, with the forbearance of the Irish people. Second, we need a stimulus to go with the balancing of budgets because it is not enough. That is true not only in the Irish context but also in the European context. We have worked might and main in our discussions with the European Investment Bank and other investors to put together an investment package with significant job creation potential, involving 13,000 jobs in its first phase. We are driving to have many of those tenders up and running next year. Some of the planning is happening right now. Some employment will happen before the end of this year, for example in the pre-planning and preparation for the Grangegorman project. Third, we need to deal with the banking debt. Along with my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Noonan, I am working might and main to deal with that legacy of the promissory note the previous Government left us.

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