Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

However, they must remember that the people voted for the Government by a considerable majority to remedy the situation and that they confirmed that decision by voting in favour of the fiscal compact in the referendum.

In simple terms, we cannot borrow money if we cannot pay it back and, to paraphrase a former Taoiseach, we are living way beyond our means. How well he knew it. According to the 2012 Estimates, as a Parliament, on behalf of the people, we will spend €55.75 billion or €12,192 for every man, woman and child in the country. That is fine, but the real problem is that we are only raising €38.08 billion or €8,312 for every man, woman and child in taxes and other income. We are overspending by €3,879 for every single person.

Members opposite will oppose every effort to increase revenue by one euro or one cent or to cut expenditure. They do not want to pay back one red cent. Regrettably, such policies and ideology are as bankrupt and defunct as the country. We need a plan to reform the country’s financial affairs. I look forward to other Deputies accepting the reality in order that they can reform their ideology and policies to bring them more into line with those of their European and global colleagues. There is something uniquely Irish about the way the parties on the left are carrying on. I call for fiscal responsibility to be shown by Members on the other side of the House because if we all work together, we will have a better result for the people. I have no problem with anyone pointing to weaknesses or faults in the proposals to remedy the economic climate. We would welcome counter-proposals. In opposing everything, however, they are following the same path followed by Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats in the past decade and a half, but in the opposite direction, in that Fianna Fáil never knew how to stop spending, while the Progressive Democrats never knew how to stop cutting taxes. These two irreconcilable policies could never work together and we all have to live with the results. It is time we all played our part in rebuilding the country. We must all put our shoulders to the wheel a little more forcefully.

We cannot oppose everything. We have voted by a large majority to be more fiscally responsible. With that in mind I want to see those who oppose a cut in expenditure or a rise in tax propose a realistic alternative. If ever we needed a fiscal responsibility Bill we need one now so that this can never happen again. That is the present situation but I want to see a better way of planning our nation's finance so that my children and grandchildren and everybody else's children do not have to face this situation again in another 20 years. This is cyclical; it happens and will happen again as it happened before. By joining this pact we will ensure stability for all our citizens.

Our Ministers have to make hard choices every day of the week. We have inherited the Croke Park agreement, which is a delicate balance between the interests of those working for our State, and reducing our deficit. I encourage those in the public service to make a contribution to rebuilding our economy. I hope the new fiscal council created by this legislation will have a positive effect on our economy and that people will never be told, for example, to go off and commit suicide as they were before. It might make better law if the Government was able to publish its reaction to the council's reports and give reasons for possibly not accepting all its recommendations so that we can all judge for ourselves whether the best road has been taken. We are not all experts but we can be self-critical - as we should be. As part of our path to fiscal responsibility we need to examine our laws and regulations on development land, the building industry, our banks and other financial institutions, the handling and management - or mismanagement - of investors' money, the handling and previous mishandling of taxpayers' money. All need to come under scrutiny.

I encourage the Minister for Finance to examine the possibility of promoting a savings scheme to kick-start a saving habit among our young people who are often offered often less than 1% interest although the Government pays much higher interest rates to borrow. I am sure an incentive package could be devised by the National Treasury Management Agency which would be of benefit to the State and its citizens.

I am proud to support this legislation which has the support of the people. I wish the Minister and the Government well in the very hard decisions they will have to take on behalf of the Irish nation in the coming eight weeks.

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