Alex White (Labour)

Indeed. Are we seriously being asked to commend the Government on its management of the economy and the public finances? How could anybody in his or her right mind do that? What policies are being pursued to restore credibility and sustainability to the public finances? There was not much sign of them in the Minister of State's speech, nor has there been much sign of them from the Government in recent days. Of course, we are awaiting the outcome of negotiations taking place outside these Houses.

The Minister for Finance was reported in The Irish Times as having told the Dáil on 10 July last that he was not prepared to bring the Republic back to the days of unsustainable borrowing, lower growth rates and a heavy tax burden. It seems that he is well on the way to doing those three things — he has certainly done two of them — in circumstances where our borrowing requirement is jumping. We clearly have lower growth rates and we have an emerging heavier tax burden with a heavier one to follow. That is precisely what the Minister for Finance and the Government are doing in regard to the economy.

I agree with the Minister of State and other Ministers that, as Opposition politicians, part of our job is to point to the deficiencies in what the Government says. However, as Opposition parties, we must be forthright in what we advocate and what we believe should happen in regard to the economy. The economy belongs to all of us and is not the property of the Government.

The Fine Gael Party can speak for itself, but in recent months my party has repeatedly brought forward clear and credible proposals in regard to a stimulus programme for the economy. When I referred to it in the House previously, I heard Senator Dan Boyle almost pooh-pooh it as Keynesian.