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

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on this important social legislation which follows the budget every year. It is a good time to review progress from where we were four or five years ago. I compliment the Minister for Social Protection on her efforts. I congratulate the Minister of State at the Department of Social Protection, Deputy Kevin Humphreys, on his elevation and I wish him well in that office.

How lucky this country is that it was possible to survive in the kind of climate the present Government was greeted with when it took office three and a half years ago. Every morning when we woke up over those years we had a concern or query as to whether there was something coming down the track that would cause further confusion and create a problem for the Government and the people. We must recognise the huge sacrifices made by the people the length and breadth of the country, those who were employed and those who were unemployed, those in need of care and carers, those who have disabilities. Every part of our social strata was detrimentally affected in some way or another by the exigencies within which the Government had to operate.

We have been very well catered for in the way the Government has handled the situation. If it had done something different and behaved irresponsibly three and a half years ago we would be in a far worse situation than we were five years ago. It was a question of being cruel to be kind, to make sure there was something available to everybody in so far as was possible and that the most vulnerable in society survived. At the same time it tried to encourage and create employment. That was a very difficult task.

The incoming Government was told that unemployment was at an all-time high, the bills and debts had mounted hugely and it must run the country with no money and try to survive. That was a tall order. I have been listening to Opposition Members in recent weeks and have at the back of my mind a concern that they seem to have forgotten where we came from and where we could quickly return if we are not careful.

The dangerous notion that everything in the garden is rosy is developing quickly. Many improvements have been made and a great deal has been achieved, albeit at great cost. If we are not careful to be judicious in the way we spend our money and cater for our economy, we will quickly go back to where we were and there will be no recourse from any quarter. We will not even have the benefit of bailouts because we will not be regarded as a good risk. Many people say there are alternatives, but I assure the House that if there were alternatives, the Government would have found them long ago. Those who glibly put these so-called alternatives into the public arena, including my good friend on the other side of the House, have suggested that €1 billion can be gathered from various sectors of the wealthy, the well-off and the rich-----

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