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

I welcome the opportunity to speak on what has been a very difficult budget. It has been one of the most challenging budgetary processes this country has experienced. It goes without saying that any effort to correctly balance Ireland's books by €3.5 billion could be expected to meet with approval or popularity. Nevertheless, it had to be done and it is worth noting it was agreed by all parties in this House that an adjustment of €3.5 billion was required. Ireland is lumbered with many great challenges, the greatest of which is a significantly inflated unemployment figure which has proved to be a crippling obstacle to growth and greater prosperity. The desire to deal with this millstone around the neck of our country is fundamental to every decision taken as part of this budget. There are too many people, hundreds of thousands, who rely entirely on State benefits. We all agree every effort must be made to provide for an environment to get these people, too many of them on long-term unemployment, back to work.

There is less agreement, however, on how that environment needs to be created. Making work more attractive as an option is a way with which I agree. It is interesting to note that Sinn Féin, with all its rhetoric and polemics, not once referred to jobs. Attracting capital and foreign direct investment has to be encouraged. People are enterprising, hard-working and resourceful. Given the chance, they will respond positively.

Similarly, investors and entrepreneurs need one measure more than any other – stability. Even in a poor economic environment, a predictable and stable State provides the basis to create jobs. We have to take indecision, fear and negativity from any consideration by these entrepreneurs and investors to make their decisions. Our tax regime, our competitive environment and an ability to take hard decisions will pay dividends. We are beginning to see small but encouraging signs in this regard. This time last year we were completely locked out of the bond markets. Our yields were 10% but are now less than 2%. There is increasing confidence in our economy and unemployment is slowly beginning to fall.

A second challenge we need to address is debt, both national and personal. Again, it was an issue not referred to by earlier speakers. Even if our bank debt was struck out, our borrowing requirements for next year would only fall from €13 billion to €11 billion. If that striking out involved default, we would still need €11 billion from the very bond markets we told we would not repay by defaulting on our bank debt. Overnight, this would have catastrophic economic consequences with ATMs drying up while public service pay, pensions and welfare payments would be halved.

No one in this House should be satisfied, content or smug about the situation in which we find ourselves or how and when we will recover. It is the people who work every day of the week and on whose shoulders that this country will re-emerge leaner, more competitive and with a fairer society. We must get the country back to work. Subsequently, everything else will fall into place. These budget measures were difficult and not popular but needed to be taken. Hopefully, as the weeks and months progress we will see genuine and real improvements in our economic situation.

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