Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With the indulgence of the Ceann Comhairle I will share my time with Deputy McLoughlin.

I agree with everything that has been said and I will not list off what has been done or the impacts the budget will have. I was first elected to the Dáil in 2011 along with the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, and Deputy McLoughlin. Some Deputies have been Members of the House for far longer than me. Budgets at that time were far more difficult and I have no doubt that when Fianna Fáil was in government in the years immediately prior to 2011 it was not pretty either. It is hard for politicians to make difficult and unpopular decisions but there is no harm in reflecting on the impact of those decisions on families and people that depend on the State.

There is no doubt that some of the decisions made between 2008 and the middle of the previous Dáil, at which stage things started to improve, took an awful toll on individuals, families and communities. Many people lost their jobs or houses and some had to emigrate. Some could not cope with the mental, physical and other strain that was put upon them and paid the ultimate cost.

In the context of budget discussions it is very easy to reel off everything that is right or wrong but the most important thing the House could do would be to take a collective view that a small bit of cop-on is needed as to our obligations as voices of the people or Teachtaí Dála. We have an obligation to be honest with people and to ensure that whatever happened before does not recur. I am no stranger to political theatre and all Members engage in it from time to time but recriminations about the past are just that and it does not help with dealing with present or future issues. All Members are guilty of it and sometimes fall into the trap of looking backward and engaging in recriminations. I do not disagree with what was said by Deputies Kelleher and Eugene Murphy regarding how the job of a Government is to address present and future problems and to ensure that it learns from the past, tries to move on and does not repeat the same mistakes. All Members know the definition of a person who keeps making the same mistakes and expects a different result.

Deputy Kelleher said that we are looking at the budget in a different political context and other Deputies, including Deputy Eugene Murphy, mentioned the responsibilities of political parties. Some Members absent responsibility and that is their prerogative. Instead, they come to the House and rant and rave about everything that is wrong. There are many things wrong but those Members offer no tangible solutions.

Although we are by no means out of the woods, we are in a situation where we have the benefit of hindsight and can ensure that the foundation stones we put in place for the future are solid. They are not perfect but everything we put in place is future-proofed. All Members of the Oireachtas collectively have to cop on and realise that this is not just politics or telephone number figures plucked out of the sky that do not impact on people. People with real problems and real lives are affected by our decisions and we have to be more honest and upfront with them.

We cannot do everything overnight. Some Members believe we can but they have never costed anything in their lives and are not going to start now. The public regard such Members as way out there anyway and expect no more from them than that. Most Members take their jobs responsibly, such as those from whom I heard very responsible contributions during today's debate. Many Deputies have highlighted problems and a lot of gaps but very few that made contributions to the debate had suggestions as to how the gaps can be filled without impacting on other areas. It is great that there is more money circulating in the economy and we hope that will continue. However, the Government has to make choices and the ultimate choice is to try to do the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people while focusing on those who need it most.

The Government was formed after a bit of a hiatus. As Deputy Murphy said, nobody envisaged what happened. Nobody voted for the current minority Government arrangement but it is what we were left with when those who could command a majority - who are not currently in the Chamber - decided they would not. Members who believed the responsible thing to do was to remain in opposition to keep in check those who would otherwise run amok did so and that has to be respected. Nobody voted for these arrangements but people now respect that the Members who decided to saddle up and take responsibility, whether in government or through constructive opposition, are doing so in the best interests of the country because we have learned from our collective mistakes. No Member is claiming he or she has not made a mistake. Any that would claim never to have made a mistake have never made anything and are about as useful to the public as a chocolate teapot. I have no problem taking criticism or abuse and I get my fair share of it from an online group who constantly look for a new name to call me. There are no prizes for guessing who those people are. However, they have nothing to offer Ireland at the moment and nothing concrete to suggest within budget or reason.

Members should be honest with people and tell them there are massive problems such as those in health, which has received the largest budget allocation, although I will refrain from going through the figures.

10 o’clock

There are huge problems in housing and in regional Ireland. If there were not, we would not be here. If there were not massive problems, we would have to ask ourselves what we are doing here. We must take, as I said, a collective decision of political cop-on. What we have at present is probably the way it will be for a long time, given the trends that have emerged in Ireland - voting trends, not opinion polls. We will be left with a different political dynamic. The two largest political parties here controlled 80% of the vote when I was a young fellow. Now they control 50% of the vote or thereabouts. I believe the new political reality is here for a long time to come. We can decide to take on board the knockers, the moaners and the people who have nothing fruitful to offer or we can decide we have an obligation to the people who elected us, whatever about the people who elected other Deputies, the citizenry that expects a responsible Government to tell it the truth, learn from the past and ensure we try to do things better than what happened before. People are withered from the "she said, we said, they said" and all the problems. They are living with the problems. Their children lost their jobs and houses and had to go to Australia. Will recrimination bring them back? No. However, we might provide their grandchildren with an opportunity their children may have lost. It is not that this budget fixes all the problems overnight, but it does give us a charter, a blueprint and a way out to where we can go as a country again. If one considers the remarkable transformation that has happened in numbers - I know some of them are telephone numbers - in a very short period, it is remarkable what the people have managed to achieve.

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