Dan Boyle (Green Party)

It is important to put the current economic situation in context. If I were to devise a ratio for where we stand and where culpability lies, I would say that 70% is accounted for by international factors and 30% by policies that primed an economy that was too heavily reliant on the construction industry, property prices and the merry-go-round of easily lent money that is now impossible to recover. These are the essential flaws in the Irish economy which are meeting with an already intolerable international situation. Yesterday the US Treasury Secretary spoke of the US having a severe contraction in its economy. As a country that has prided itself, probably unfortunately, on being one of the most open economies in the world one of our main trading partners will be in a severe recession before we can seek to achieve economic recovery.

The economy of Japan contracted by 3.3% in the past quarter alone. Every four weeks its GDP shrinks by 1%. The bank liabilities of the two biggest banks in Switzerland, the citadel of banking, Credit Suisse and UBS have combined current liabilities that are seven times the GDP of Switzerland. This is an international crisis. Our nearest neighbour has already invested in or guaranteed its financial system to a cost of £1.3 trillion. The responses we are dealing with are the same as those of every other major economy in the world. This will affect how we do things.

People have made criticisms, which may be justified, of the pace of change and the choices being made but these circumstances are unparalleled in world history. Many people are discovering policy approaches as we go along. In the UK, there were four separate approaches in respect of Government interventions in the financial institutions; in the US, there were six. One year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the banking situation in those countries has not improved. We are dealing with this on top of bad economic choices we made in the past and on top of a financial services sector that, in some elements and in terms of certain individuals, has shown itself to be corrupt. There are necessary obstacles that we must overcome. We must acknowledge that an international crisis exists, which we are suffering disproportionately because of policies followed here.

On the other hand, it is important that the political debate gets beyond the pantomime politics we have experienced since we entered this critical juncture in the country's economic history. The main Opposition party referred to having better options in terms of only the most recent €2 billion that had to be corrected in public expenditure because of the shortfall in tax receipts in November and December of last year, never mind any ideas about the €4 billion we must save at the end of this year, the €4 billion at the end of next year or the €3.5 billion for the year after that. Some of the proposals made by Fine Gael do not add up and some include measures that have already taken place.