Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis an Seanadóir Buttimer as ucht a chuid ama a roinnt liom. There is no doubt the economic challenges the State faces in the coming period are substantial. However, with well thought out, responsible policies they are not insurmountable. Simply bringing the budget forward is not enough. The Government needs to take charge and recognise that the buck stops with it when it comes to running the economy. A Government response to the current situation which seeks to address the shortfall in public finances by resorting to cutbacks in public services is simply not acceptable. Our public service is already characterised by a lack of capacity and quality. Of all the countries in Europe, only Estonia and Lithuania have lower public service spending than us.

Opposition parties are correct to blame Government mismanagement for our present predicament. However, those of us in Opposition also have a responsibility to propose solutions as to what we would do. While waste and duplication must be eradicated, let us not kid ourselves that there is a black hole in public spending. It simply does not exist. Government spending is nowhere near the level at which it needs to be to reverse the deficits that were allowed to build up in our social and physical infrastructure. We need to use innovative thinking to stimulate the economy and build the revenue needed to fund our public services appropriately. We need to offer responsible solutions as to how the Government can dig itself out of this mess in the short and medium term while protecting the most vulnerable who have so often in the past become the target of Government cuts.

To stabilise the economy we urge the Government to use the budget in a number of ways. We want job creation prioritised. In particular we want an immediate retraining programme provided for construction workers to get them into renewable energy retrofitting in other industries. We want the Government to address our underperforming export market. Approximately 90% of our exports in 2006 came from foreign-owned companies based here rather than indigenous industry. A well-known American economist has commented that we had not so much a Celtic tiger as an American tiger trapped in a Celtic zoo.

We want the national development plans in social and affordable housing and school buildings to be frontloaded, which would re-employ the construction workers and contribute revenue as well as keep people off the dole queues. The Government needs to take action to reduce the cost of living pressures on the low paid and those dependent on social welfare by establishing an inflation package and awarding social welfare increases. It is imperative for the Government to introduce a set of proposals to reduce the cost pressures on small businesses, including fast-tracking companies legislation to reduce the regulatory burden while protecting workers' rights. In all of that we need a fundamental reform of the tax system. If we have sensible well thought out policies, we can dig ourselves out of the hole in which we find ourselves.