Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

No one in this Chamber or in the media is trying to talk this country into recession. The Taoiseach stated not long ago that people who talked down the construction industry were unpatriotic. However, often people simply are trying to have a reasoned debate without the use of spin. The sector of our economy that is not sheltered is suffering owing to a loss of competitiveness that has been fuelled by an increased cost base and lack of productivity in some services on which it depends.

I run a business and, like other business people, I know what it means to be fleeced by Government costs. Rates, waste and water charges are increasing while there is a raft of large additional charges, including VAT. That affects everyone who provides jobs. It will have a knock-on effect on the economy when people begin losing jobs. The Government did not take control of this cost base and that is the nub of the issue. Each day I deal with many areas of the public sector. Many people are making a significant effort to keep things working and running on time in so far as they can. There are also many problems in that sector, however, and I have been aware of them for more than a decade. Some of them have improved but some have worsened in recent years. Again, it is a failure on the part of the Government to recognise these well-known problems and tackle them.

The chickens have started to come home to roost and that is damaging our economy. Government speakers who recite lists in their contributions as if everything in the garden is rosy are acting like the Taoiseach did some months ago when he told us we were unpatriotic and talking down the economy. We are not talking it down but urging the Government to do something about it before people are back on the dole queues and the emigration boats. Our growth rate of 3% is not keeping pace with public spending growth of 8% and the erosion of the cost base. That is what we must confront when we talk about broadband, the lack of road infrastructure and basic things such as how people get to work. People are forced to commute in cars and find their commuting times lengthening. They are experiencing great difficulties at present and Members of the House waffling about how much the Government can spend will not help matters.

Senator O'Malley made an unbelievable statement when she said the public sector unions are driving the Government down the privatisation route. If any explanation is needed for how the Progressive Democrats became redundant rather than radical at the previous general election, that statement says it all.