Nicky McFadden (Fine Gael)

The bottom line is that the IMF is an influential international body and we must take heed of what it is saying. For a very long time, Deputy Bruton rang the emergency bells and asked that the Government not be complacent, and said that there was a serious crisis about to happen. His words fell on deaf ears. The Government is taking credit for the good bits of the IMF report, but sadly it would not listen to Fine Gael and to Deputy Bruton when he rang the emergency bells so many times.

What worries me is that it is the ordinary honest person that will suffer, as 500,000 will be unemployed due to this serious recession. The IMF report makes it very clear that Ireland is suffering the worst recession of all the advanced economies. That is a fact, but my colleagues on the other side of the House have not pointed to that at all. The IMF also points a finger directly at the Fianna Fáil and Green Party Government, especially Brian Cowen, who was the Minister for Finance at the time, and states that we have the most overheated of all the advanced economies. Long before the crisis struck, the public finances had developed a serious structural weakness, and this is stated on page 21 of the executive summary. It is not very positive for the Government at all.

Senator Hanafin spoke about a soft landing, but I do not think that a soft landing occurs when 500,000 people become unemployed. The report also states that we should not be increasing taxation, yet this Government has put up to €500 on public service pay in the form of a levy, but does not have the guts to call it a tax. People are not able to pay their mortgages and must cut their spending. That is not a sign of a soft landing either.

Fine Gael have always claimed that taxpayers should be protected. We are still very concerned about the way NAMA has been constructed. We fear that taxpayers will end up bailing out the banks, and that they will not be protected. Fianna Fáil protected the golden circle, consisting of the banks and the Mr. FitzPatricks of this world, the property developers, big businesses and senior public servants. The IMF acknowledged this as well. We must remember the philosophy of the Government. I remember Brian Cowen saying to young families in 2006 that the exorbitant house prices were based on sound fundamentals. We can see this is nonsense when we read that 12 houses were repossessed in one day last week. It is the saddest thing to see one's home taken away because one does not have enough money to pay for a mortgage.

The amalgamation of the 11 health boards into the Health Service Executive has been an absolute debacle. Professor Drumm stated that 3,000 backroom staff did not actually know what their jobs were. Senator Hanafin asked how Fine Gael would make cuts, but we would ask public servants for redundancies, and we have been saying that repeatedly. There are people out there who would be happy to take voluntary redundancy, and the HSE is the biggest drain on our economy.

There is a network of cronyism within the public service and a cosy relationship between Ministers and senior civil servants, developers and bankers. This recession may be a high price to pay for it, but if that culture is obliterated and gone forever out of our country, that will be a good thing. The only way that this will happen is when Fianna Fáil is out of government, and I look forward to that day.

I am concerned about whether there will be money to pay social welfare benefits and to pay the public service. That is the bottom line for me. The IMF has warned that unless we cut expenditure, that is what will happen. It is a pity there are not more people here to debate this worthy topic.