Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----and abandon the country in the way that Fianna Fáil did. It is bit like Groundhog Day. We have a lesson to learn here. Let us go back to the beginning of modern Irish politics and work forward to today. The Acting Chairman spoke about this earlier and I mentioned it last night. From 1977 to 1981, the most outrageous promises were made by a Fianna Fail-led Government, and what happened? There was chaos. Who came in behind them to clean it up? Fine Gael and the Labour Party. We can fast-forward to one potential exception, Ray MacSharry, who had to do what he did because he had no choice. However, Fianna Fáil could not be trusted on its own. Because we could not trust Mr. Haughey, we had to bring in the Progressive Democrats, and then what happened? "Sure, you can't trust them. If in doubt, leave them out." They left. We then brought in the rainbow coalition of Fine Gael, the Labour Party and Democratic Left, and for the first time there was a burgeoning surplus, resulting in the creation of more jobs and more money. What happened? We had 14 years of a party. They could not give the money away. The Fianna Fáil Government was like the best man at a wedding buying drink for everybody, but the drink was money for the Irish people, and what happened? The people turned to Fine Gael and the Labour Party again. Whatever else can be said about Fine Gael and the Labour Party, we have pride in our country, we live up to our responsibilities, and we do not shirk or funk the hard decisions, unlike some of the Members opposite who go scurrying to the media at every hand's turn. That is their way - I not am saying that applies to Deputy Dooley - but not our way in government.

I will debate what this Government is doing with any Member opposite.

Outrage was expressed in the contributions from the opposite side of the House. We are all outraged but outrage does not tell the troika or the markets that we can create jobs or get our fiscal budget right. That is the reason I am proud to be a member of Fine Gael, and I will never resign from Fine Gael. I will never castigate my colleagues in government for making hard decisions. I will do it in the privacy of our own room, in the same way Deputy Dooley did it in Fianna Fáil. In fairness to the Deputy, he did not go running to the media being critical in the way some of his colleagues did.

Government is about governing for the people. I will face the Irish people, and I will respect their decision if I lose my seat in the next election because of decisions we took in government. I have tremendous respect for the sacrifices our people have made but how dare the Members opposite come in here and use intemperate language to criticise our Taoiseach.

This is about a Government keeping our nation sovereign and giving our people hope. Members should cast their minds back to the 1988 Democratic Convention when Jesse Jackson had one great line for the American people. He stated: "Keep hope alive. You must not surrender." This Government is a government of renewal. We have not surrendered. We have not given up hope, and we have an expectation for our people that will begin again on 15 December when we emerge from the bailout into a post-bailout period.

We should not get obsessed with the idea of empathy that we hear from some quarters. The men and women of this Government sitting in this Chamber tonight and every day understand the reality of suffering and the sacrifices our people have made, whether they are a small business owner, a farmer, a public servant, a senior citizen or an unemployed person. We understand that. That is why we assumed the mantle of government and leadership, which had gone. We had a benign Government for 14 years, and in particular for the last two years of that Government, yet we had to listen to the sultan of Brunei, Deputy Mattie McGrath, tell us otherwise.

We should face the reality of life. The Government understands the suffering experienced and the sacrifices made by its people as a result of the collapse of our national economy. Consequent to that collapse we have been carrying out a readjustment of what had happened. The Acting Chairman referred to that in his remarks earlier. We had an insatiable desire to spend money. Every day this Government must borrow in the region of €34 million to pay for essential services. That amounts to approximately €8 per person per day.

I am not a housewife. I do not have a family to look after. I look after my own budget and if I do not have money, I do not spend it. In the same way if a family does not have money, it does not spend it. Are we really saying our financial situation can continue unchecked or that it is okay to spend money we do not have? In making the necessary difficult decisions in terms of the spending of our moneys, I will support the efforts to realign public expenditure and ensure that those who should pay the most pay the most. In the two and a half years of this Government's term we have balanced that. We have maintained core social welfare payments, and I heard the comments made earlier by some Members opposite. Deputy Nulty was the one Member of this House who was elected with a mandate from the people for the programme for Government.

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