Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit, an Teachta Mansergh. Senator Hanafin opened his remarks very eloquently. To borrow Bill Clinton and James Carville's famous line, "It's the economy, stupid." How right they were. It is the economy, the pounds, shillings and pence in the pocket of ordinary citizens. It is the capital and liquidity that small enterprises, farmers and businesses need. This Government forgot that line. It failed to keep vigil on behalf of the Irish people. To paraphrase the psalm, it did not stay awake all night and did not protect us from the roaring lion. It did nothing until the ship of State hit the rocks.

This debate takes place when unemployment figures for my county, Cork, show a 57.5% increase on this time last year. This represents 4,285 people on the live register. This comes in the wake of an announcement by Heineken Ireland that it will close Beamish & Crawford brewery with a loss of 120 jobs in my city, Cork. These jobs are lost because of the amalgamation of two breweries. This is a devastating blow to the workers and their families, the city of Cork and the brewing industry in Ireland. We are losing a brand name and sacrificing manufacturing, which Senator Hanafin mentioned, for amalgamation and profit. What has this Government to say to the people of Cork this morning? What hope does it offer? Where were the words of optimism in the Minister's speech? There was none and there is none for the people of Cork, where we have witnessed devastating unemployment in technology and other industries in the past 12 months.

Like Senator Donohoe, I am concerned about where we are going. We have seen no master plan or strategic plan from Government. There must be an acceptance that we must trade our way out of this difficulty. Senators Hanafin and Donohoe spoke about exporting goods and services. We are a small, open economy and we have not addressed the issue of the decline in our manufacturing. We have watched it sink to the bottom. Let us address the issue of the growing of our national income. Let us look at the Governments of the period before 1997, which had a competitive economy, when our goods and services were of excellent standard and where we had accountability, a plan and vision.

If we were to carry out an assessment of this Government, whether an ongoing assessment or an end-of-term examination, under the heading of the economy, public finances, budget forecasting and management of the public services, it would receive a resounding failure mark. It would not pass. The Government moved on the banking industry, but it was nearly too late. This side of the House supported it. What has happened since with our credit institutions? We have heard little or nothing from the Minister. There is speculation about capitalisation and so on, but we have heard nothing concrete. Where is the plan?

This Government must answer one fundamental question and be held to account for it. The Minister referred to it in his opening paragraph. How did the Government squander that surplus? How did it happen? The Government has not explained it to the Irish people. Never before has a set of people sitting at a Cabinet table, who inherited a surplus from the outgoing Government of 1997, squandered such a boom. Where did it all go? What have we to see for it? It is time we had action and leadership on the cost of doing business, our competitiveness, our manufacturing industry, farming and the management of our public services. I fully subscribe to the viewpoint that we need to revitalise our manufacturing industry, but we need to do so with a Government that is on the job, smaller and flexible in dealing with this issue.

Who is in charge of financial forecasting in the Department? They have consistently got it wrong on Exchequer funding and tax receipts in the past ten years. We cannot blame the global downturn for all our woes. It is a factor that has impinged on us, but why were we one of the first countries, if not the first, of the euro zone countries to go into recession?

Social partnership has served this country well and I support the model. However, in the past week we have had conflicting views from the Government. Is the pay deal going ahead? Different Cabinet Ministers have said different things, including the Taoiseach. The great knight from the south, Senator Boyle went on "Morning Ireland" and made a different comment as the Green Party spokesperson on finance. Can we get a definitive answer on that? Is it not better to protect and preserve jobs than to cut jobs and have more job losses? That is why my party unashamedly called for a pay freeze in 2009, with a saving of €500 million, which will ensure we will not have cutbacks and will allow us to invest in infrastructure and school buildings, along with retraining and upskilling.

I spent almost 18 years working in the public services as a school teacher. Fine Gael is not anti-public service. We support the public service workers because they do an excellent job. They defend this Government and protect and shield the Irish people from worse. I thank the teachers, gardaí, nurses and all who work in the public service, including those in the HSE who are being maligned. They are not the reason we are in this trouble. They do an excellent job but lack leadership from the mandarins in the Departments, the Government and the people in charge of the HSE. Those are the facts.

The Minister correctly stated in his speech that we all must work together. That is why we on this side of the House have put forward many proposals and supported the banks when the need was greatest. However, it works both ways. It means there must be co-operation in the bad times and the good. Where was the clarion call from Government when it was on a spending splurge? It did not ask us for support on different issues or what we wanted. The Government splurged all the money on its pet projects and pet people, and now when the ship comes in to the rocks and the Government has shown it has no vision, the flag comes up for national government and for a Tallaght strategy. Let us not demonise the public service and let us not demonise the Opposition.

We need leadership, not botched decentralisation. Rather than botched plans, we need vision. Predominantly, it is the party of the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, in Government which has been the cause of the lack of value for money, the lack of support for front-line services and the lack of support for small and medium enterprises.

I have not heard a Minister in this House, or elsewhere, speak of supporting the woman in Cork I met last week who is losing her business. She cannot afford to keep it open because of the cost of trading and doing business. Do we say to her we will increase the VAT she is charged?

At this time of the year, budgets are being set in local authorities and, owing to a lack of support, they are struggling with the idea of raising the commercial rate. At the same time we get a bland comment about patriotism and that we should not increase the commercial rate. Where is the support for local government?

Let us have a real debate about what Government has not done in the past ten years. Let us have a debate about the fact that today my city and county of Cork again has been mired in unemployment, with no plan and no vision to deal with it. That is why we are having this debate today. I thank the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, for coming to the House two months after the budget. That shows patriotism.