Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

Others see less money in their pockets. Many find it difficult to access credit from banks when they have no job, and it is no wonder many are angry and disappointed.

If Fine Gael or Labour were in power, they would have to face the same difficult choices we have had in governing and they would have faced the anger of voters if roles were reversed. Whoever is in power must face the same difficult choices and make the same unpopular expenditure cuts.

Just two years ago, in the only poll that is really relevant, the people gave this Fianna Fáil-led Government a third time in office. This is our mandate and anybody who suggests otherwise is being opportunistic and, in particular, undemocratic. The Taoiseach received a majority vote in the Lower House last night for a vote of confidence in the Government, 85 votes to 79 votes. Those of us here for the longest time know this is a substantial majority. It is also a vote of confidence from the people's representatives, which include the two new Deputies who I had the opportunity to congratulate.

The mandate given to the Taoiseach to govern was provided by the people two years ago and we will see it through for the five year programmes that we have come to know over the past ten years. I welcome today's debate, which allows Members on all sides of the House the opportunity to outline and make our views known. On this side of the House, we must put on the record the great work done by this Government over the past number of years.

The crime issue is a serious challenge to our country currently but we have an excellent Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform in Deputy Dermot Ahern. He has brought about ten Bills on gangland crime alone, relating to surveillance and gun control, and all these have been published. This week the Criminal Procedure Bill was before the House for our consideration. It looks after the victims of crime and looks to rebalance our criminal justice system in the direction of victims. This was a commitment we gave as a party, together with our partners, the Green Party.

This Government has a very good record in the area of law, order and public services. There have been an additional 3,500 gardaí recruited in the past four years, along with an extra 7,000 teachers and 11,000 nurses and doctors. We also provided the largest social welfare increases in the history of the State and the greatest increases in old age pensions. There was no €1 per week increase there. We should give credit where it is due in this regard.

We brought in the lowest tax wedge seen in the history of our country. It is not just the Government which has made this argument; the OECD has made it over the past ten years and we have had the lowest tax rate here for that considerable time. In other words, our people paid the lowest amount of taxes of any country in the OECD and we deserve credit for that. It is a long way from the 65% top rate and 35% standard rate of tax which we had 20 years ago.