Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)

We have to look at social inclusion from a holistic point of view. We cannot debate social inclusion in the House by bringing in any one Minister or any one Department. We must look at the Tánaiste's Department and at Departments which are in charge of training, budgeting and education. Rather than talking about this broad issue generally, I would like to home in on a couple of areas.

Economics is about booms and troughs. An economy cannot continue indefinitely on an upward curve. Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats, while they were in Government, enjoyed a boom period. Where do these economic booms emanate from? There are various contributory factors, such as our education levels, our talented population, our industrialists and membership of the European Union. There is no single indicator. These two parties happened to be in Government during an economic boom. When you are in Government and are enjoying the fruits of a boom, there will be money in the kitty to distribute. We, as a society, did not capitalise during that boom period in terms of social inclusion and sustaining social inclusion.