David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

He is the one who brought about the cuts in all the Departments and areas in which he is now saying we now need investment. As my colleague said, it is very illuminating to hear all the parties, which were the cheerleaders for the fiscal rules, berating Sinn Féin for getting it right and for saying that the one-size-fits-all rules were not going to work, that they were too rigid and inflexible and would have a negative impact on the economy, on our ability to borrow and on our ability to invest in public services. Thankfully, they are all now on the same page and accept the error of their ways. They are all running around trying to find ways to clean up the mess they made; to sell off shares we should not sell, looking at off balance sheet options and special purpose vehicles and PPPs, and all because they messed up in respect of the fiscal rules.

9 o’clock

It is welcome that the Labour Party acknowledges its mistakes. Now we have to correct them. The reality is that we need significant investment in capital infrastructure. That is why Sinn Féin put forward fully costed alternative budget proposals last year, including €1.2 billion in capital spending. It was the only party that used one of the very few flexible options we have under the fiscal rules, which is to smooth capital investment over four years, front-loading investment in all of the areas about which Deputy Brendan Howlin talked such as health, housing, infrastructure, rail and public transport and so on. We were able to put €1.2 billion on the table in our alternative budget.

As my colleague said, nobody from any of the parties that were cheerleaders for the fiscal rules has been able to point to a credible argument for selling off the shares in AIB. The only argument I have heard from the Labour Party, the Government and Fianna Fáil is that we have to do it because we have no other way of funding capital investment. They made a mess and sold the people a pup in respect of the fiscal rules. The Minister says so himself when he reminds the Labour Party that the fiscal rules are enshrined in law. They are enshrined in law because the Labour Party, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael asked the people to vote for them. Now they are running to the European Union with their tails between their legs looking for changes which they should have got when the rules were being negotiated. They should have listened to us in the first place.

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