Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Billy Kelleher, to the House and wish him well in the Department. I was there and it is a demanding role, particularly at present. I commend our colleagues in the Green Party on tabling the motion to highlight the situation. The timing is very appropriate given the unfortunate announcements today and the number of people who are unemployed. It is a frightening statistic and we should all do our utmost in a united approach to try to resolve the issue.

The commitment given by the proposed coalition of Fine Gael and the Labour Party in 2007 stated:

Our manifesto commitments are fully costed and affordable in the context of the prudent budgetary assumptions drawn from the most authoritative economic sources. The Economic and Budgetary Framework agreed with Labour provides for continued government surpluses, and a reduction in net debt to below 7% of GDP by 2012. Can someone tell me when it discovered things would go as bad as they have gone? This is the type of myth that has been painted for some time.

I want to put this on the record. I get tired of statements from Fine Gael that it could foresee the future and knew that there would be such a downturn in the economy. It went on the basis of the facts and figures we had available to us, no more and no less. It had the assumptions and proposals and I got the manifesto. I had a job getting it because it is becoming a very difficult document to find. It would be easier to get The Da Vinci Code. It is gone from the Fine Gael website and I am not surprised. It has been left aside because there is a lot of information in it which Fine Gael would not be able to stand over now.

I want to be clear that we are all in this together. In 2007 we were all looking forward to continued growth and development. I can quote the manifesto line for line and section by section. It was not far away from the Fianna Fáil and Progressive Democrats manifestos at the time. Most of the promises are very agreeable because they are all about growth and more money. It states Fine Gael would cut the standard rate of tax by 2%, from 20% to 18%. That was definitely an indication that it could foresee the future. It states Fine Gael would abolish stamp duty for first-time buyers of homes up to €450,000, there would be no stamp duty on homes up to €100,000, a 5% rate on the next €350,000 and a 9% rate on the balance. I can discuss all of the manifesto and the figures projected at the time of the general election. They were very attractive. The amount of money available to spend on day-to-day commitments in 2009 is mentioned.

The reality is that nobody could see the future at that time. We are where we are now and we have to try to work our way out of this situation. I believe in a united approach. We took hard decisions in 1987. I was a Minister then and it cost me my seat in Dáil Éireann, but we had to pay the price of those decisions. At the time Charles Haughey was Taoiseach and Ray MacSharry was Minister for Finance. We worked together and I have to commend Alan Dukes on the Tallaght strategy.