Dan Boyle (Green Party)

These reports, especially the IMF report, are neither a ringing endorsement of Government policies nor a crib sheet for the Opposition parties to say that things would be so much better if only they were in government. The reality is that the reports show the seriousness of our current economic position, one that was brought about by international factors that are affecting all other economies with which we compete, and a combination of flawed policies in the past ten years that are contributing to a worse situation in this country.

Much is made of some of the statistics that are mentioned - for example, the 13% decrease in the value of the economy - but, as with all statistics, we must take into account what we are measuring and from when. The reality is that the Irish economy grew faster and higher than all the other competitor economies. While growth deductions of 4% and 5% are the norm in other economies, those economies also grew by a similar size in the period when this country was out-performing them. We are talking about a situation where the economic adjustment we are all experiencing will probably bring us to the levels we enjoyed at the start of the decade.

How we achieve that as a country will have devastating social consequences. The role of Government and the political system is to make sure these can be ameliorated as much as possible.

The most recent economic statistic published was the inflation figure for the year ending June 2009, showing that prices have fallen by 5.5%. This has happened at a time when all other costs, particularly wages, have not adjusted. Those costs have adjusted in the private sector but when we talk about controlling public expenditure, this is an important statistic we must bear in mind in terms of the difficult decisions that must be made in the Estimates and for what will be a difficult budget in December.

In recognising the seriousness of the situation, I hope other political parties will acknowledge that reality. I have often heard the talk of how these events were presaged before the last general election and we should have known what was coming down the line. I did not see that in any of the party manifestoes for the 2007 election. The Labour Party manifesto stated that Ireland has a successful economy and the figures from both Fine Gael and Labour predicted continued growth of 4.5% year on year from 2007. The Green Party was the only party to foresee that there would be economic changes in the period ahead. We got little thanks for being such Jeremiahs.

Economies go in cycles and we have the misfortune as a country, irrespective of who is in Government, to be involved in the adjustment of an economic cycle more serious than anything we have seen in 80 years. How we adjust to this will be a measure of our economic prosperity in the future.

I fear that what was good about the economic success, the confidence of Irish people thinking they could transform and achieve through entrepreneurial ability, is now under threat and I appeal to the Opposition not to contribute to that downward spiral. The media is also engaged in such activity because the more we talk ourselves down, never mind who bears political responsibility for the situation, the less likely we are to get out of it in the shortest possible time.

That is where reports like that of the IMF are valuable. They point out that Ireland continues to have a strong economy and that the things that must be done are being done. If there is any lesson in the report, it is that if there was a change of Government today, the exact same policies would be pursued. I cannot hear anyone in the Opposition denying that. Our public expenditure deficit and the structure of the economy are what they are and the measures we can take are only a combination of controlling public expenditure, increasing taxation proportionately and being able to borrow in the most effective way. That third area will dictate our future economic prosperity and growth.

There is a feel of the 1980s about where we are at the moment, with the re-emergence of high unemployment and the willingness to emigrate, if there was somewhere to emigrate to. We even have Marian apparitions, on tree stumps instead of moving statues. I do not want to go back to the 1980s, we have come further than that in the last 25 years and we have the capacity now to learn from what we gained from economic success, even those hard lessons about rewarding and acknowledging the wrong people while failing to spread wealth equally. We also know, however, that we have the capacity to bring about a better Ireland. We can only do that by acknowledging the strengths that are found in this report.

We must deal with some factors now that did not exist then. We are a member of the euro and cannot adjust interest rates or the money supply. Ironically, because of our membership of the euro, our financial systems are more secure because of the support of institutions such as the European Central Bank. We must talk about this issue as we focus on our role as a member of the European Union.

NAMA is the best option available to us. We have thrown darts across the Chamber as to the motivation of NAMA but I had the privilege of listening to Bo Lundgren, who was a member of the Swedish Government, who spoke to the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service and to the Institute of International and European Affairs. He explained how they approached their banking crisis in the 1990s. Regardless of what certain economists have written in our newspapers, the approach was not unlike what we are experiencing and what we are proposing. I would like the debate to be conducted in those wider, more honest terms.

We have a situation in our banking services that, while it is drawing away funds that would be better used in building the economy and meeting our pressing social needs, must be dealt with first because without a proper financial engine the economy will not be able to function in future.

I do not deny there are people in financial institutions who were corrupt, whose personal greed has brought us to where we are and who should pay a price for that. I am as frustrated as many people that action has not been taken until now or quickly enough but I am confident that action will be taken. We need other cultural change and when people talk about institutions being developed and the use of solicitors' firms for the benefit of developers, I feel angry. The situation with bad planning, however, has been contributed to by more than one political party and because of that the responsibility must be shared. County councils with members from several political parties have contributed to decisions that have benefited individuals and have been to the detriment of local communities.

Unless we are prepared to change those cultural aspects of our political system to bring about a better economy, informed by reports of this nature, we will be slower to recover and people will lose out as a result.