Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will begin on a positive note on our economy before I acknowledge all of the great difficulties we face. Listening to some of the Opposition speakers one would think there was nothing of any merit and nothing positive happening in any part of our economy or business life. We live in a country where every day there are between 80 and 100 business start-ups. We live in a country which already this year has been successful in attracting thousands of jobs in foreign direct investment that could have gone elsewhere. We live in a country that still has 1.8 million people working. We are a struggling economy that is selling abroad the goods and services we produce at a greater rate and at greater value than we have done at any other point in our history.

There are hugely positive dimensions to what is happening in our economy which we must build on and harness. The grave difficultly we face is that they co-exist with the trauma of an economy coming through an horrific credit bubble and the consequences of an horrific housing crash. In addition to that, hundreds of thousands of people are unemployed. Many people are struggling with the level of disposable income they have at the end of each week or month and the means available to them to look after the wants of their family. We have the ongoing tragedy of people leaving our country through no fault of their own and through no choice of their own.

Despite that terrible difficulty we still have, the positive elements of our economy I touched on earlier and many parts of society are trying to respond to that challenge as best they can. I have just come from a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts which spent most of the day meeting with representatives of the Irish Prison Service to discuss the issue of allowances. They made the point that they have fewer staff and an increase of between 25% and 30% in the number of people serving custodial sentences, all of whom they can cater for and supervise in the right environment. They have made overtime savings with the same amount of staff of €30 million per year. That is an example of the way different parts of our society are collectively responding to the terrible difficulty we all face.

In terms of that collective response, I heard two points made from the Opposition benches in recent days criticising what we are doing as a Government. I ask two questions of those Members. If they are against narrowing the gap between what we take in in tax and what we spend each year, of what are they in favour? Are they in favour of not narrowing that gap and ensuring we have less money to spend in future on our public services because we must spend more money on debt repayments and debt interest payments? Are they in favour of narrowing that gap in a different way? If so, they should spell that out with credibility and honesty. They should not put forward ideas such as a wealth tax and pretend that will not affect our banks, ordinary people who have deposits in banks, and the ability of businesses and families to get the credit from banks that they need.

They are putting forward the economics of Harry Potter, fantasy ideas as credible solutions to the trauma in which our country finds itself. If that is what they believe the answer is, then they need to spell it out.

Some Opposition voices also claim they are against the idea of recapitalising our banks. No Government wants taxpayers’ money going into recapitalising the banks. However, do these Opposition voices believe we would be in a better position if our banks were not capitalised or secured? If it is not the taxpayer who will pay for recapitalising the banks, then the Opposition Members need to spell out who will. Over the next several weeks, as the Government sets out what it will do to respond to our economic difficulties, the Opposition should honestly answer those two questions.

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