David Norris (Independent)

I am glad to have an opportunity to contribute to this debate. Although there has been a change of Ministers, Deputy Mansergh has occupied senior positions of administration before entering parliamentary life and as such he is well equipped to deal with any modest suggestions that may come from either side of the House.

I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, will agree that there is no avoiding the fact that the situation is serious and that it came upon us with remarkable rapidity. I am one of a number of people who believed this would happen. However, I was relying only on instinct as unlike my colleague, Senator Ross, I do not have expertise in this area. The problems that have arisen in respect of the construction industry are not entirely Irish; there are global factors involved, including the situation in regard to sub-prime lending in America. All of these problems are related to the neo-liberal economic policies and to the incarnation of greed as something good as represented by what I call the Leeson syndrome, namely, people, removed from the reality of ordinary people, speculating in the abstract on futures in the stock market.

I take an ideological slant on the matter with which I am sure not everybody will agree. However, we all recognise the situation exists. Two questions come to mind. How long will this economic downturn last? While it will end Government can bring it to a closure much more rapidly than might otherwise happen. Also, how badly damaged will be the most vulnerable elements in our society during that period? These are the people who most need to be protected in this situation. I refer in particular to people dependent on social welfare, people in receipt of health care and so on.

I agree there has been a collapse in the construction industry. However, that does not break my heart. No group deserved it more. The arrogance with which the building and construction industry treated people was unparalleled. I am sure the Minister of State will recall the stories echoed in this House about people being gazumped by builders who tried to squeeze more money out of them and did not honour their contracts. Everybody is aware of the attitude of individual builders to ordinary people trying to secure their services. They treated people with contempt. The regression was inevitable and necessary and my heart is not breaking over it. I heard Members on this side of the House state some people in the construction industry were earning €400 per week. I wish I had known who they were because I would have employed every last one of them. One of the bellyaches was that these people were being undercut by the Polish people. The Polish people work hard and turn up on time for work. They did not go off to South Africa on safari or to their villas in Spain halfway through contracts as builders here did. This is in some ways a salutary correction. However, I am concerned about those caught in the mortgage market. Everybody had money shoved at them. It was unconscionable. I do not have a mortgage or debts with the bank, thank God, but I remember the last time I had and it was very unpleasant. However, in recent years I was in receipt of correspondence from every bank in town. Letters poured in offering me €20,000 or €30,000. They could not get rid of money quickly enough. We must bear in mind the arrogance of the banks and the fact that they speculated in America. They also did so here many years ago and the taxpayer had to bail them out. They should be put on notice that they will not be allowed to savage the ordinary people who are being crucified by debts.

Senator MacSharry said that we should front-load the positive proposals because otherwise they would not be implemented. I have a few such proposals. They may be very naive but I would like to present them to the Minister of State. I whispered one or two of them into the ear of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, and also complimented him on taking this God-awful job at what was the worst time in political life to be catapulted into it. However, when I expressed my sympathy to him, he brushed it aside and said he was thoroughly enjoying the experience. Good for him. He was absolutely right to tell the conference in Dublin Castle that the building boom was coming to a shuddering halt. Why should he be criticised for this? A little more truth from members of the Government would be welcome. We can stand the truth and should hear it. The Minister also performed very well on "The Week in Politics" against a formidable opponent, Deputy Bruton, who would make a superb Minister for Finance.