Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

Everyone understands Ireland's role within the European Union and within the eurozone. That said, we are also very much responsible for our future. The money markets have little trust in the euro currently because it is a currency that is under significant pressure. The story of what has happened in Ireland in recent years indicates what has gone wrong and what should have been prevented. We have never been in this position before and are not working from a template we can understand. Comparisons have been made between where we are right now economically with where we were in the 1930s after the Great Depression. I suppose there are some similarities, such as problems with the banking sector, the global economy and massive debts. Not long ago, before the last election, we were talking about a €3 billion surplus in the economy, but in a short period of time we have gone to a budget deficit of €25 billion. I am sure the Minister remembers that in the days of the Celtic tiger, his party was first to take the credit for the successes of that era. There was no talk about the Tallaght strategy until we had well and truly landed ourselves in a serious crisis.

This legislation is necessary because it is essential to ensuring the eurozone area and currency do not collapse. If it requires this sort of measure to keep it going, we must play our part, despite that our own financial position is far from secure. We need to be more honest about how we will manage our finances. The Minister for Social Protection has spoken about cutting old age pensions. I do not know whether he is just flying a kite or whether this is something the Government plans for the next budget. We need honesty from Ministers with regard to the plans for the budget at a time when we are making the biggest per capita contribution to the Greek bailout. Our budget deficit is one of the highest in Europe but the Government does not appear to be showing any inclination to consider ways of dealing with our affairs with openness.

There has been significant criticism of Fine Gael because it objected to the fact our budget will be vetted by other parliamentarians before it is fully vetted in the Houses of the Oireachtas. There is a reason for that. We landed ourselves in the mess we are in because of our boom and bust economy where our budgets often did not reflect the reality of our position. Governments borrowed and spent without heeding the direction the economy was taking. The latest reports, published today, show our competitiveness has dropped again. We need to restore competitiveness as quickly as possible and restore jobs or we will be dragged down. The Government can begin to get us out of the mess by changing the mindset behind how budgets are delivered. We need more debate in the Oireachtas on budgets. We must move away from the one big day for the budget at the beginning of December and have better development of the multi-annual plans that have been happening over recent years. We need to broaden the discussion on our budgets and their provisions so that we can move away from our boom and bust system.

In one of today's newspapers, a well-known journalist pointed out that once former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, and the former Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Cowen, had stoked up the construction boom and it took off, we were all on a roller coaster from which we would find it difficult to alight until it was derailed. It would have been difficult for Deputy Cowen to slow down the construction boom because he might lose an election as a result. It would have been difficult for him to rein in the banks to stop reckless lending because that would have had an effect on the economy. Despite the fact people were pointing out regularly at the time that we were borrowing up to €15 billion from our eurozone and European partners, mainly German banks, and that this was what comprised the growth in our economy, there was little said about the fact that this was unsustainable. That has been a contributory factor to our current position.

While the Bill before us is set up to deal with the Greek issue, we need to be more open and realistic about our home-grown issues. I have noticed that Government representatives are doing their best to highlight any sense that there are green shoots or that we are turning corners in the economy and I am aware the Government hopes growth will return by the end of the year. I, too, hope we have reached the bottom because we have been dropping significantly for too long. I do not know whether the Government is making the right choices. It must get rid of its mindset that only it knows and understands what is happening with the economy. We need to develop a more inclusive Parliament out of the crisis we are in. We need a different approach to how we deal with budgets. We need more discussion and more accelerated reform and transparency within the civil and public sectors because these account for such a large part of the economy and are of major significance to competitiveness and growth. We need to show we are seriously committed to this sort of change and to bringing it about more quickly.

Fixing our banking system has been very expensive for citizens, who will be paying for it for a significant number of years. We need to develop openness rapidly. Much of the anger in the community about the bailout for Greece is due to the lack of openness. People find it almost incredible that we are helping to bail out the Greeks. It is laughable that we are acting like big fellows, telling the Greeks we will give them €1.3 billion when the average person knows that we have the largest deficit within the eurozone, that we are borrowing €25 billion a year and have not got our own house in order. The Government needs to explain to people exactly what we are doing. It also needs to change the way it does business.

We need to be more open about how we do our business and about how the Government does business, especially the Cabinet, because few of the rest of us have any great say in how the country is run. The Dáil has been very much neutered over recent years in terms of the say it has in how the country is run. Decisions generally revert to Cabinet, but that must change. This change can take place if budgets are debated over a couple of months and if future strategies and plans are debated openly in the House so we will not land ourselves in a mess like the one we are in now.

The Government should consider including in the discussion everyone elected by the people to make these decisions on their behalf.

The benefits of the good times were undoubtedly squandered. Probably up to €100 billion just evaporated from the economy and we are now paying for this. NAMA is paying on behalf of the taxpayer. Individuals' houses have lost huge values, but they must still repay their loans. People and businesses have gone broke, while others are struggling to survive. Who knows where it will all end? There is only one thing worse than being negative about our future and that is giving false hope, which must be avoided. Last December the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, spoke about how the country had turned a corner, while last June, on the day of the local elections, the Governor of the Central Bank said he could see green shoots in the economy. If people do not see things improving and are being given false hope, it can worsen the mood of the general public and consumer sentiment about where the country is going. We must spell out exactly what is the situation. We are still in dire straits. The Croke Park deal must be passed by all of the unions. If not, it will have a huge knock-on effect on our competitiveness. There must be increased transparency in government in order that the people can feel they are part of the decision making process and can buy into what is being done. We must also radically change the way we do business in order that it will be seen to be productive, useful and inclusive of everybody.

We have little choice but to support the Bill. However, a number of changes must be made in the coming months. The Government must take seriously the issue of creating a more inclusive government for the country because we are not yet out of the woods with regard to this difficult financial crisis. Things might be improving slightly, but the problems will be with us for years. We must take a new approach to the way we do things.