Liam Fitzgerald (Fianna Fail)

My colleague opposite has been on a rather confused and complicated odyssey of some kind to the land of nowhere. In welcoming the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, I wish to comment on his spending plans for the coming year. He has responsibility for overseas development aid and in the short time he has been in office, he has made spectacular progress in securing a substantial increase in funding for overseas development aid.

I am pleased to welcome the €813 million the Minister of State has secured. He has reached the target of 0.5% of gross domestic product, GDP, to which he committed himself. At the beginning of his Ministry, he made it quite clear where he stood and I acknowledge that. He has a target of 0.6% of GDP by 2010, which he is determined to achieve, and a target of 0.7% of GDP by 2012. One of the most spectacular achievements for the coming year is the increase of 50% in emergency aid for famine, drought and other unanticipated difficulties which occur worldwide. I have no doubt the Minister of State is ensuring Ireland is living up to its international obligations in terms of humanitarian aid. I am very impressed with his performance and am glad he is in the House to hear me say that.

I commend the Minister for Finance on his overall approach to the Estimates for the coming year. There is widespread acknowledgement, although perhaps there might not have been three or four weeks ago, that the Minister's spending plans are appropriate, responsible and sustainable, to use his words. The yardstick by which we should analyse and judge his plans are their appropriateness, responsibility in regard to spending for next year and future years and their sustainability in terms of a successful economy.

The economy is working very well and is the envy of the developed world. It is second or third from the top of the league table in performance terms and our people are at work. A nation that is at work is, by and large, a happy one. Last year alone 80,000 additional jobs were created. When one looks at the extent to which we must use migrants from abroad, both EU nationals and, to a lesser extent, non-EU nationals, we have full employment. Our job creation rate is three times the EU average and the real challenge is to ensure we do not do anything which puts this achievement and momentum at risk. The manner in which the Minister for Finance presented recent budgets and these Estimates ensures that momentum continues. After all, jobs mean wages and salaries and they are an obvious solution to poverty. We can come up with many commendable schemes to deal with poverty but at the end of the day, jobs are the best way to address poverty because by giving people wages and salaries, one restores their dignity. Jobs reduce the number dependent on social welfare and create revenue to fund public services through income tax.

Gurus in certain places have been prophesying profligacy, recklessness and auction politics by the Minister for Finance but they have been proved very wrong. There is a considerable amount of money because of the very successful way the Government has overseen the operation of the economy. I also accept partnership is at the core of that. The phenomenal performance has manifested itself in a significant surplus of money. Instead of profligacy, there has been prudence and instead of recklessness, at which some people in the media and elsewhere were hinting, there has been responsibility. Now those same gurus are trying to anticipate the Minister for Finance's next moves. Some of them are still hinting that recklessness will break out in the budget but they will be proved very wrong in that regard.

Nowadays when we look at the Estimates, we see many different figures. We no longer count in hundreds of millions but in billions. The figures are mind boggling. No matter how large the amount of money, it is important it is targeted in a way which creates a better quality of life for all. No matter how well an economy performs and irrespective of the surplus of money, if we do not improve the quality of life for people, we are not successful.

The clear principles which should underline any spending plans and programmes are family and community — our children and older people — and the quality of service we provide for everybody. As we know, the services are delivered through education, health and the environment. Senator Bannon had some negative things to say with which I disagree.