Shane Ross (Independent)

I should preface my remarks by stating that this is not a unique debate in this House nor is it a motion which will inspire a great deal of original thought or enthusiasm. What we are hearing is a Government indulging itself in a certain amount of self-praise and an Opposition, for reasons of its own, not reciprocating that particular sentiment.

I have noted one or two things in the motion before us. There is no great ideological difference amidst all the mumbo-jumbo between the motion and amendment. Whereas the motion is somewhat absurd in its detail and should simply state that the Government congratulates itself on running the economy well, the Opposition ought simply to oppose it and forget about it.

It is easy for an Opposition to be selective in its criticism of Government economic policy by picking out various bits of it. We could all do that. Behind all this, however, I sense enormous agreement across the fold in terms of how the economy ought to be run. What I do not note in the Government motion or the Opposition amendment is any great commitment to ideology and I suspect that is because their ideologies are similar. There are noticeable absences in today's debate, one being the lack of debate on direct taxation because everybody favours low tax. Many people are frightened of criticising the Government's low taxation policy because virtually everybody in the country approves of it. The debate is held in a vacuum because there is no ideological difference between Fianna Fáil, the Progressive Democrats and Fine Gael on the economy. There may be a difference between them and the Labour Party but that, too, is becoming blurred.

It is difficult to take on a Government which has had, I suspect, a pretty easy ride running the economy because it has been doing so during prosperous times. The question we need to ask is whether it has done the job well, whether it has been lucky and whether it has steered the economy well through good and bad times with a certain amount of wisdom, discretion and courage. It is my view that since 1997 — I hope it is an objective view — the steering of the economy, mostly by the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, and others has been extremely prudent. Though we can all point to serious mistakes, the great test for the Minister for Finance was whether he could steer the economy well in difficult times. It is self-evident that task is easy in more prosperous times. I believe he did so. When times were rough and other countries were getting into difficulties, what happened in Ireland was minor in terms of a blip. That, I suggest, is due to the fact that we are not as tied to the type of sluggish European economies as are other countries and because the Minister for Finance was extremely prudent in his management of the public finances and did not take the easy choice of borrowing too much money as other parties might have done. Also, he had the backing of sturdy, courageous, committed people in both parties to take that stance.

An objective person must, in this debate, look not at the detail of the motions, because the Government and Opposition wording and itemisation are totally and utterly selective and understandably so, but at whether overall the economy has come through a difficult period well and whether we are now out-performing what we might have done had another government been elected. I understand and sympathise with Fine Gael's position on this matter. I believe Fine Gael approves of what the Government is doing. Ideologically, it is at one with the Government but it is stuck with a political problem in that it cannot form a Government — Senator Mansergh is right to point this out — without getting into bed with the Green Party and the Labour Party. In that regard, it has to pretend it is in some way deeply opposed to what the Government has been doing, when it is not. Fine Gael must approve of the Government's low taxation policy because it tried, when in Government, to lower tax. We all know what happened: the Labour Party prevented it doing so. I cannot remember the details and am open to correction on this but I think Fine Gael tried to reduce income tax from 47% or 48% to 45%.