Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. It is helpful to recall the situation that pertained when this Government assumed office three years and two days ago. There was no confidence among people in this country at that time. There was no confidence in the banking system. On the international stage, confidence in and respect for Ireland was at an all-time low. In short, we were at our lowest ebb. I assume many colleagues were of the same view as me at that time, namely, that we might not survive. I very much doubted that it was possible to survive, without major social upheaval, in the type of climate into which the Government was then facing.

I take this opportunity to congratulate the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and other Ministers on their execution of what amounts to an economic miracle in the shortest possible time. It was due to the huge efforts of individual Ministers and the example they were shown by the leaders of the two parties in government that we have achieved such success. The Government was facing an impossible task, with no confidence among people in this country that anything could be done. As Deputy Coffey pointed out, the numbers of unemployed were increasing on a daily basis. Everything was on a downward trajectory and, as a result, our standing in the international arena was seriously damaged. The leaders of the two parties in government and their Ministers set about the impossible task they faced with no support from the Opposition. The negativity from the other side of the House was in evidence from the very beginning. Individual Ministers were targeted and addressed in the House in a derogatory fashion, and the quality of the debate directed at them was appalling at the best of times.

Despite all this, the Government has prevailed. It is usual in this country for very little credit to be given to those who take on the impossible task and succeed, and we are seeing the proof of that now. An all-out effort is being made to downgrade the achievements of the Government. We have had smears and sneers from all sides as an attempt is made to convince the public that nothing has been done. In fact, a great deal has been done to drag this country out of the depths and put it back on the map once again. That achievement is down to the Herculean efforts of every Minister in this Government every single day since their appointment. Their performance is in stark contrast to that of the outgoing Government, where Ministers ran away from their responsibilities and some did not even know what was happening. That Government washed its hands of the situation it had created, with Ministers happy to walk away and leave it to the Irish people and the incoming Government to take responsibility.

Great credit is due to the people of this country, in both the public and private sectors, for the huge sacrifices they have had to make and the massive burden they have borne. I agree with Deputy Coffey that the Irish people deserve all praise for taking up that challenge presented to them and sticking with it. They proved that given leadership and inspiration, they could achieve greatness, and so they did. That greatness was our survival, against all the odds and when all of the indications suggested we could not. International financiers did not expect us to survive. Europeans in general believed we would not survive. Everybody took the view that our economy was a basket case. Fortunately, the Government and the people have prevailed and we are on the road to recovery.

It is important to recall the huge sacrifices made by people right across the public sector. Every employee has suffered massively as a result of cuts, not at the discretion of the Government but necessitated by the lunatic policies pursued by its predecessor. There are those who claim to have seen the collapse coming, but they did not articulate at the time what they now claim to have been obvious. It certainly is true, however, that as far as 2002 and 2003, the writing was on the wall for anybody who wanted to read it. The problem was that the Government at the time was having too much fun. We were all aboard a carousel and the Government could do not wrong. Emissaries were coming here from Brussels on a weekly basis inquiring as to how we were keeping the economy going. It was all down to social partnership, they were told. In fact, social partnership was the death knell for the economy because no regard was had in that process for issues like competitiveness. It was all about buying off anybody who had a problem, which certainly solved the first problem but also created an even larger one. As I said, the sacrifices made by the public sector have been huge. I hope in the time ahead that those workers will be able to bask a little in the reflected glory of what has been achieved.

Workers in the private sector, meanwhile, were the first casualties of the crash. The huge job losses Deputy Coffey referred to took place in the space of one year or less. Everything went downhill and everybody was looking at their neighbours and wondering who was going to be next. We have not yet worked through all the problems we inherited from that period, but a great deal of work has been done. The catastrophe endured by private sector workers did at least serve to let our European colleagues know that the economy was not at all that it had been made out to be. The so-called boom period was not really a boom, but merely a bubble or glass shell. When the cracks came, they came immediately and with huge consequences for every sector.

Deputy Coffey referred to education and health, two crucial sectors in any society. The Opposition likes to remind us of promises that were made by the incoming Government. All I can say is that the only promise I or anybody around me made, given the situation in which we found ourselves, was to do our best to ensure the country's survival and safeguard core services. That was all we had to do. This Government had only one thing to do, namely, to pull the country back from the brink. Our job was to offer people courage and some type of inspiration. In order to ensure the country's survival, the Government had a responsibility to take the right decisions, some of which were very difficult.

The Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform were the two crucial Departments in driving forward that effort. The Opposition hoped those two Ministers would not last six months, that the country would come down around their ears and they would never be seen again. The Opposition was disappointed. The Ministers set about their task in an objective and constructive way and they did the right thing. They were responsible for the future of the country, not concerned for their own gratification, and all credit is due to them. The same applies to the Taoiseach and Tánaiste. No other party leaders in government during my time in this House - it is not today or yesterday I came here - have done so much to inspire the people and have stuck together so well in doing so.

A Department of which I have some knowledge from a previous existence, the Department of Social Protection, deals with what is obviously a very sensitive area in difficult times with a high level of unemployment. All credit is due to the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton. Hers was a very difficult task. The Opposition Members howled with glee when they believed she was in difficulty from time to time. Its members rubbed their hands and hoped the end was in sight and that the people would embrace them once again and call on them to lead them to the promised land. The Minister was not in any way put off. She stuck to her job and did so very well. She would admit herself it was an extraordinarily difficult task in the circumstances.

Let us consider the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, its Minister, Deputy Phil Hogan, and his colleagues. Their job was to restore the country's infrastructure under its remit that had been neglected for approximately 20 years. Nothing had been done about it. When the current Government took office, all kinds of foreign bodies and matter were floating in the drinking water supply in parts of the country. There was a concerted campaign by people on the other side of the House, who must have gone out to inspect the septic tanks because they are not present, to undermine the necessary efforts of the Government to provide vital infrastructure in keeping with 21st-century requirements and put us on a competitive footing with states throughout the EU and globally. All credit is due to the Minister, Deputy Hogan, and his colleagues for their work and sacrifices, bearing in mind the abuse they have taken in their effort to put in place the foundations of what will be of benefit to the people.

The Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, was criticised daily. It is amazing that it has been possible to maintain health services to the extent to which they have been maintained, with fewer staff, less money and a greater throughput of patients. The Minister and his Ministers of State have got no credit for it, nor do they expect to get credit. However, it is important that they stick to their task and try to deliver the goods so as to have continuity of service. The people depend on the decisions made now for the future. Despite all the hassle and abuse concerning developments in health service over recent years, the service has survived. In this regard, one must acknowledge the work of a committed group of people working internally in the service. Despite this work, all we hear is criticism about private insurance costs and claims we will all be unable to pay for insurance next year, etc. The Minister remained and remains committed.

With regard to education, I have referred already to the efforts made. When the Government came into power, it was asked whether the Minister would be able to deliver and maintain the services and contain the demand throughout the country at the same time as operating within budget. He did so and has done an outstanding job.

Housing has been mentioned very often in recent days. For those of us who continue to work on the ground - our number is diminishing - it was quite obvious from five to ten years ago that we were heading towards a housing crisis, as the Acting Chairman, Deputy Wall, well knows. It was clear that the efforts being made to address the issue were nil. What happened was that the previous Administration decided it was not going to provide any public authority housing at all and that all housing would be provided privately in the future. It argued this was the correct approach but we now are where we are. Some 100,000 families are on local authority waiting lists. The current Government is now being urged to build houses and it is argued we should have done so in three years. The previous Government was doing nothing only looking at the problem for 15 years. The only thing it did in the 15 years was count the number on the waiting list twice. It discovered that if one counts often enough, the number shrinks of its own accord because people change address, and some people are not recorded.

Let me proceed to energy and communications, for which the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, is responsible. He has done an excellent job, and has set about providing the future foundation for the country in a fundamental way that will be of benefit to the people, whose population will have increased in ten, 15 or 20 years. This job was important.

Agriculture and transport comprise two areas in which the two relevant Ministers have been spectacularly successful, even given the restrictions that obtain in the current climate. They should be congratulated on it.

I wish to proceed to the sensitive area of job creation. When the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, took over responsibility in this area, there was no hope or possibility of achieving anything. The future looked dim and gloomy, in which fact the Opposition rejoiced. It knew what this was like and it allowed it to happen, sadly. I congratulate the Minister.

The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, has a new Department. She is the first Minister with responsibility for children and youth in the history of the State. Hers has been a great achievement and she is to be congratulated on her success to date.

I want to make a point on the most recent crises, which seem to arise daily. The Minister for Justice and Equality, as with every other Minister, entered office in an extraordinarily difficult economic time but has managed to keep the service going. That was a huge challenge. He has managed to rise to it with the support of his colleagues in government, and he continues to do so.

I have never seen such politicisation of An Garda Síochána in my time in this House. Any time I witnessed politicisation in the past, I became alert and worried about where we were heading. If, as time unfolds, we politicise the police force, we will do a very dangerous thing and go in a very difficult direction.

I am so sad and sorry for those absent members of the Opposition who have been so eloquent and condemnatory in the debate over the past week. They have found nothing positive to say about anything but that is their problem. Negativity is the business and game in which they indulge. It is negativity for purely political purposes and nothing else. It does not achieve a whole lot. If three years ago the Government had been as negative as the Opposition is now, we would be worse off than when we started.

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