Joe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This Bill gives legislative effect to Articles 3 and 4 of the stability treaty adopted by referendum on 31 May 2012. It merits affirming and congratulating the people for the leadership role they played within Europe and for their foresight in adopting the treaty comprehensively. That was a great day for the country and for Europe. The Bill also establishes the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council on a statutory basis. Article 3 requires that budgets be balanced or in surplus and it proposes a correction device if this is not so. Article 4 proposes that the debt-to-GDP ratio cannot exceed 60% and, if it does so, the difference must be reduced by an average of one twentieth per year. The debt rule is already required under the Stability and Growth Pact, which was adopted in late 2011. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, said the rules were sensible and prudent and represented a responsible approach to budgetary policy. My colleague, Deputy Griffin, ventured to suggest certain budgetary exercises that could achieve the objectives. That was a helpful exercise and, like him, I look forward to next week's debate on the issue.

I am pleased the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Hayes, is present and I am keen for him to take the points on board. The official statistics suggest that fraud, misuse or misappropriation of various welfare payments in the country is exaggerated in the popular mind and that the percentage is low in relative terms. However, anecdotal evidence suggests this area needs more examination. This week we read of the exercise of social welfare officers who visited homes to establish whether children were present. The checks were reported on the front page of yesterday's Irish Independent. Such hands-on field visits are worthwhile because in no sense do they threaten the vulnerable and needy. It is our priority to deploy resources towards the vulnerable and the needy. Such exercises, which catch misappropriation, fraud and so on, can yield more low-hanging fruit, to paraphrase Deputy Griffin. I realise this is a popular concept as well and it can be exaggerated but I believe there is something in it worth considering.

I subscribe to the premise that we must be seen to achieve fairness and that the upper echelons and more highly paid people must be seen to pay their way in any budgetary strategy. I am confident this will be the case in the upcoming budget. However, that is more a matter for next week's debate. I believe in the payment of supports to people. It should be axiomatic and accepted beyond doubt by any Member that the vulnerable and the needy who need our help should get it. There should be direct social payments to those who need it and support for home care services, home help services and so on. It should not be a matter for debate and it goes without saying that these services are required. However, we should consider targeting in all areas. There is a need to target services at the needy in a specific way and to look to where people may be fit to make a contribution through family or whatever. Targeting will be important.

The objective of the fiscal compact treaty and of our prudential financial management of the country is to achieve the stability of the euro. This is to be achieved through the six-pack, made up of five regulations and one directive, and the ESM treaty, which will create a permanent rescue fund, firewall or support system. That entered into force on 20 September.

It is heartening for all of us to have in place the combined measures of the fiscal compact treaty, the stability mechanism, the six-pack and the communiqué following the recent leaders' meeting, which refers to a separation of sovereign and banking debt. All of these strategies are combining to stabilise the euro and the markets and there is evidence to this effect. The Minister of State, Deputy Hayes, will be better placed in his reply at the end of the debate to go into detail on it. My knowledge of the markets and a cursory glance at the media every day suggest that the markets have stabilised considerably and the euro is doing well relative to how it was doing. It appears there is not the same level of fluctuation. Ultimately, this is good for everyone and good for Europe. We are going in the right direction and we are getting there gradually; this is a considerable achievement. Confidence is returning in the euro and in euro countries, and this is palpable. It is a critical milestone and a good news story. Bloomberg TV and the other business television channels indicate the euro is performing well. It has not suffered the same number of dips and troughs as previously.

It is vital that we match all of the required fiscal prudence with other measures. People have no wish to go back to the dreadful place we were in previously. We owe it to our children. If Members have any moral responsibility, it is to ensure that the errors of the past are not revisited on our children. Those of us who have lived through them have a collective responsibility in this matter.

We have been working to ensure fiscal prudence is in place and we must continue in this vein and work with the budgetary objective of arriving at a deficit level of 3% of GDP. The budget deficit must keep coming down and we must take €3.5 billion out of the economy this year. There is no avoiding these hard realities and we have a moral responsibility not to shirk them and not to seek short-term political gain by shirking them. We would be doing an injustice to the people who elected us were we to do so.

Prudent financial management should be matched with a jobs stimulus at European level. The IMF, the ESM and all the mechanisms in place must be brought together to create the necessary support in credit terms for an initiative for jobs. We need more days such as yesterday, when we heard the announcement from the Kerry Group of the creation of 900 jobs, which was so heartening. This must be replicated throughout the eurozone area. There is a potential lost generation of young people who will never work if we do not change things, and that is a dreadful prospect. Some 30% of people between 17 and 25 years of age in the country are not working or do not have a job opportunity, and that is not a sustainable position. We need to ensure the availability of jobs and the establishment of a jobs stimulus. This should be a headline position during our Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Another headline position during our Presidency should be to say there is no going back. There can be no going back. The people are going through considerable pain and hardship at the moment. It affects every sector and there is no denying it. It is a source of stress and distress to everyone. The least we owe the people is to say there can be no going back to a situation of vast budget deficits. Effectively, there was no correlation between what was coming in by way of income tax and what was going out in current expenditure. The deficit was in the region of €19 billion per year. That is not sustainable and cannot be repeated. It is important that a legislative position is established. It is also important to set up the fiscal council to ensure independent monitoring of the Government such that we reach the objectives of bringing down public expenditure.

The greatest moral imperative on every Member of this House is not to do onto our children what was done onto us. That means getting the finances correct, following that exercise with the jobs initiative and putting legislation, devices and authorities in place so there can never be a return by any Administration to what was the case in the past.

See this speech in context