Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I am reminded of the story of a hot chestnut seller in New York who, for many years, ran his business from a stand. He did it so well that he was able to send his son to college. His son asked him one day if he knew a recession was coming and told him to cut back on the chestnuts on display. The father said thank you to his very intelligent educated son and cut back because a recession was coming. He sold less each week and by the end of the year, his business was gone. His son said he was right all along that a recession was coming. It is a lovely story if one gets it right but the point is that we can talk ourselves into recession.

In the time I have to speak I will not look back but will look to the future. We heard today about some steps that could be taken. I am concerned about those running businesses of any kind who have never had the experience of worrying about where they will get the money to pay the wages at the end of the week. When in business one must watch those costs which one can afford to reduce and those which one must reduce. However, one must go out of one's way to ensure one grows the business. From that point of view, there is a real danger that the negativity I have heard in recent days could undermine the confidence of investors in the future.

When we look to the future, let us ensure we cut costs. A cost which must be cut is pay in the public sector and everywhere else. I am not too sure how we can do that.

Two years ago when I had to speak about the successes of the Celtic tiger I did my homework to see why it had succeeded. There were six reasons. We invested in education over 40 years. We had access to the market in Europe and we ensured we concentrated on those sunrise industries. We had a low tax rate to attract people here. We had social partnership which meant there was agreement on where we were going. I am not sure how the Government will convince everybody but we must find a way to convince the nation that we must cut costs because it is in our interests to do so. That was done in 1987. The sixth reason was that the Opposition of the day, led by Alan Dukes, said that if the Government did the right thing, it would support it.

On that basis, I call for a national drive saying that we will look at this in a positive way, that we will succeed, that we will not talk ourselves into a recession and that we will get our sums right, reduce our costs and get the backing of all sides in the community.