Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to take part in this evening's debate. When this Government took office in 2011, this country was in dire straits. The previous Government, which was led by Fianna Fáil, had run the country into the ground to such a degree that we had to rely on bailouts to pay our bills, including the public sector wages of nurses, teachers and gardaí. It should not be forgotten that this was just four and a half years ago. Fine Gael in government had to take many difficult and unpopular decisions to restore the public finances and rid the country of the troika. For example, the public sector suffered average pay cuts of 14% and was reduced by 10% at a time of growing demand for public services. As the economy is now growing as a result of Government policies and the sacrifices of the people, it is right that we should provide for a sustainable system of pay recovery for public servants that is linked to continuing reforms that help to make the public sector more efficient and effective. I am particularly pleased that the new deal will target lower-income and middle-income public servants.

Although austerity is now over, we must be mindful of how we got into this financial mess in the first place. We can never go back to the Fianna Fáil approach of making unsustainable and populist pay awards. These awards, which were not linked to productivity and competitiveness, had to be reversed at great cost to the taxpayer. The approach pursued by Fianna Fáil in the past to buy votes is now being pursued by Sinn Féin to buy votes in the future. Budget 2016 benefits public and private sector workers. It provides for a marginal rate of tax of less than 50% for anyone earning under €70,000. These tax cuts will help to sustain affordable pay growth and secure economic recovery. The sensible budget that has been announced for next year is designed to keep the recovery going, to reduce the deficit to 2.1% of GDP in 2015 and to 1.2% of GDP in 2016 and to eliminate all Government borrowing by 2018. Tax revenues will increase by 15%, whereas spending will increase by just 4%. I acknowledge that the Government is continuing to borrow money, but I suggest that this borrowing is manageable because it is at historically low interest rates. If this Government is re-elected, it will be able to avail of the situation it has created to implement moderate expansionary budgets every year until 2020. I suggest this should be compared to the situation we faced when we took office in 2011. Does anyone really want to go back to this? A vote for Sinn Féin or Fianna Fáil will make this nightmare a reality.

Our €27 billion capital investment plan is affordable and responsible. In my own constituency of Louth, we are seeing the benefits of the growing economy and the increased investment in services. In Dundalk, the Marist secondary school is being completely rebuilt, St. Joseph's national school is getting a major new extension and Coláiste Rís has recently opened a new extension. Elsewhere, the new extension to the CBS primary school, the new Educate Together primary school in Ardee and the new extension at Scoil Uí Mhuirí in Dunleer are all projects that have benefited from the capital programme being implemented by the Government. We are making real progress in job creation in the region. Unemployment in the north east has fallen by almost 30%, as evidenced by the many new jobs announced over the recent past, including hundreds of jobs in the likes of PayPal, eBay, National Pen and SalesSense. As I have said previously in this House, the economic recovery did not happen by chance; it came from the policies implemented by the Fine Gael-led Government and the sacrifices of the people. Even though we now have the fastest growing economy in western Europe, we cannot take it for granted. It is still a fragile recovery. In my opinion, unemployment is still too high. The choice for the people at the next general election is simple. They must choose between stability and economic progress, and between chaos and uncertainty. It will be as simple as that. I welcome the Government's decision to restore the pay and services of many public servants. After four and a half very difficult years, I am pleased that we are now seeing the benefits of the Government's policies and that the sacrifices made by the people are now being rewarded.

See this speech in context