Shane Ross (Independent)

That is correct. However, Fine Gael was prevented by the Labour Party from doing so. That is the quandary in which Fine Gael now finds itself. It now has to flirt with the Green Party and the Labour Party and pretend it disapproves of what the Government is doing when, in effect, that is what it was prevented from doing. That is the quandary in which many of us would find ourselves if in government. The Government is lucky in that it has an overall majority, a great deal of self confidence and the backing of people of courage in various key Ministries. The Government has steered the economy well.

Why is it that the Irish economy, despite the statistics as pointed out by the Opposition — all of them correct but not terribly important — is so outstanding in a European context? There is no disputing that inflation is low at, as Senator Fitzgerald pointed out, 1.3%. Growth is also outstanding at 4% and unemployment is low as is capital gains tax and income tax. We have managed to do the double because public spending is high. I suggest there are two reasons that is so. First, the structural situation in which the economy finds itself — our transatlantic dependency in terms of our huge dependence on America. We have the United States to thank for the boom, the Celtic tiger, which Europe does not have. Second, a Government with a different philosophy and ideology could have easily squandered our wealth and would have done so. When in Government, Fine Gael had a major problem in terms of the Labour Party's high spending policies. Fine Gael could not resist the extraordinary demands — I am not referring to the Eircom shareholders, we can forgive them for that — of the high spending Labour Party that wanted public spending to increase come hell or high water.

If we had followed that path, we would not be enjoying the prosperity we now have. There are problems and there will always be problems with an economy like ours but overall if we had to make a judgment, we would say we are in a pretty good situation and that the economy has been pretty well taken care of to the satisfaction and prosperity of the Irish people during the past seven years.