Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

I second the motion. Senator Ó Brolcháin remarked that this motion is somehow irrelevant. In one month's time the concerns of what is happening within our political party will be old news. However, the effects of what has happened to our economy are being felt severely and will continue to be felt quite dramatically. Whatever about members of the Green Party, members of Fianna Fáil understand this is having a very significant effect on their support among the public. The former Minister for Finance and current Taoiseach has been very slow to admit to his mistakes and to what went wrong with our economy. To an extent, as Minister for Finance he was like someone who set the house on fire. When he became Taoiseach, he waited for the fire to take hold before he started to put it out. Now he wants a medal for doing so.

Unfortunately, Government policy had a significant role in causing the problems we face today. The economy has been stressed beyond belief. The bailouts to the banks are the equivalent of what it costs to run two Departments, namely, the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. Anglo Irish Bank presented at committee today and thanked us for the €15 billion it received but proposed that it might need a further €8 billion or €9 billion. Figures such as €24 billion are tripping off bankers' tongues as if they were chicken feed, but they are not. They are unbelievable sums of money. The Government will only bring in €32 billion in taxes this year. However, one bank is already looking for €24 billion of taxpayers' money in a bailout. This is on top of the 450,000 unemployed. Many people's lives have been ruined.

Let us consider how our economy was deconstructed by Government policy. The first phase of deconstruction involved the construction sector. The party which was established and initially sold itself as a party set up to represent men of no property has somehow turned into a party representing men of substantial property. I am unsure whether it was hubris or being in awe of property developers and speculators. Ministers altered policy to suit these people. For a time, 14% of the GDP of this country was made up of construction. It was way out of kilter with the rest of Europe. We have heard so much about why this has happened but most people understand that it is not true.

What is really interesting is that during the election, these developers and speculators informed their workers that only Fianna Fáil could protect their jobs. What is also interesting is that around this time, Fianna Fáil Ministers knew the property bubble had burst and that it would have a huge effect on the jobs of people in the construction sector but for some reason they felt it was easier to lie and not accept what was going on for the sake of power. That may be a very hard statement but it is the reality.

Ministers knew the property bubble had burst. Even the Taoiseach was still suffering from the delusion that there would be a soft landing. I have not heard too much about soft landings in construction bubbles. By their very nature, construction bubbles build and deflate quite quickly and the market resets itself. The Taoiseach continued in this belief that there would be a soft landing, as did many Ministers.

What has transpired from all of this is the level of debt ordinary families have. What is really annoying those families is that they feel they were hung out to dry by this Government while it pours billions of euro into NAMA for questionable reasons. There is much concern about NAMA despite Ministers rolling out people to say it is the right thing. We are not being very honest with ourselves if we do not acknowledge there are problems with NAMA. There are problems with how the NAMA legislation is functioning, about which I am sure the Minister for Education and Skills is beginning to hear at the Cabinet table.

Another issue which is really annoying the public is the extravagant lifestyles of certain individuals. I came of age in the 1980s when there was a song by Christy Moore called Ordinary Man. When the people hear about people jetting off to places and living extravagant lifestyles, they sense they are still paying for it. I refer not only to people who have lost their jobs but to people in the Civil Service and the public service who are paying three extra taxes — a health levy, a pension levy and an income levy. Others have also seen a dramatic cut in their incomes. That is having a second impact on our economy in the form of consumer spending.

Another problem only slightly grasped by the Government, but which is the biggest problem, is the turmoil in the public finances. There is a huge gap between what we are spending and our income. I refer to the delay in dealing with this crisis. I accept much of what the Government is doing to deal with the crisis is right but it cannot take credit for dealing with a crisis it caused. It cannot laud itself on that. There is still a sense among the public that the Government is not dealing with this crisis quickly enough.

The Government must accept the people are bitter and angry that they were misled at the latter end of the Celtic tiger years, that this Government bought the last election with their money and that it has left them paying for it for a number of decades. That is why the Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, should be honest and go before the people and why we have tabled a no confidence motion in him.