Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "That" and substitute the following:

"Seanad Éireann has confidence in the Taoiseach and this Government".

I am proud to affirm confidence in the Government which is willing to take the hard decisions necessary to get the economy on the road to recovery. I remember two recessions and was a Member of this House for one of them. The Government of the day in the 1980s did not take the hard decisions. The Taoiseach of the day was very honourable and honest when he said many years later on his retirement that he would have made different decisions if he had to make them again.

This Government has provided confidence and credibility for the Irish economy and the markets at a time of great turbulence. As the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance pointed out yesterday, many countries in Europe now face serious problems in their public finances. Ireland has gained an advantage by moving quickly to tackle the public finances.

This Government has attracted much criticism from political opponents. I have been involved in politics long enough and lived through enough recessions to know that in an economic crisis, governments need to do what is prudent. Taking the populist approach will not get Ireland out of this crisis. There is no doubt that the Government could have tried to defer the hard decisions but as the example of Greece shows us, the hard choices cannot be avoided for long. Other nations are now following Ireland's example.

At all stages, the Taoiseach's Government has put the national interest first and has put economic substance before political spin. Everyone in this House and in the country knows that Ireland is going through a very difficult recession. We are lucky we have men and women of courage under the stewardship of Deputy Cowen, as Taoiseach, and their talents at this crucial time.

The Taoiseach is a man of substance and of real integrity. In tough economic times, we need people with broad shoulders. We need Ministers who will not be deflected by criticism, who have the bottle to do what is necessary and who will not be rattled or thrown off course by the fleeting opinion poll.

Many people have spent the past two years deriding decisions made by the Taoiseach and his Government yet it is now becoming increasingly clear that the major policy decisions taken by the Government over that period are having the intended impact on the public finances and are restoring much need confidence in our country.

I pay tribute to the Taoiseach and welcome the Tánaiste to the House for this very serious and important motion and wish her well in her new portfolio. Our colleagues, the Minister for Finance, the other Ministers and Ministers of State and the Green Party Ministers and Ministers of State have shown great political maturity, leadership, acumen and skill.

As the Taoiseach made clear in the Dáil yesterday, the recent reports confirm the need for an extensive guarantee, that Anglo Irish Bank was a systemic bank at the time of the guarantee, that the bank's failure would have been disastrous for the economy, that the timing of the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank did not result in higher costs and that steps have been taken to correct the main issues relating to regulation.

In his report, Governor Honohan is unequivocally strong on the need for a guarantee. He made the point that if the Government had not acted on the night of 29 September 2008, the cost to our economy would have been detrimental. In this respect, the report must make difficult reading for our colleagues in the Labour Party who said there was no need for a guarantee.

The report states: "Closure of all, or a large part, of the banking system would have entailed a catastrophic immediate and sustained economy-wide disruption involving very significant, albeit extremely difficult to quantify, social costs, affecting in particular the fundamental function of the payments system in a modern economy." It further states: "Considering the experience of other countries in such circumstances, the social and economic costs, if they could be quantified, would surely have run into tens of billions of euro." These immediate costs were avoided by the guarantee. The record shows the Labour Party voted against the guarantee. The reality of that choice, had its position prevailed, is the entire banking system would have collapsed and our economy would have gone down the tube. Without a guarantee, there would have been a run on the banks and Governor Honohan says that, in all likelihood, the main banks would have run out of cash within days.

The Government is pursuing a clear and well defined strategy to generate sustainable jobs. Those who say we can save jobs while allowing financial institutions to fall are closing their eyes to the most basic necessity of economic reality. That reality is our economy is open. We depend on exports, foreign investment and international trade and those who advocate defaulting or allowing banks of systemic importance to fall clearly do not understand the reality because following such a dangerous course would suck confidence and investment out of the country and do untold damage to Ireland.

In a recent speech in Athlone the Taoiseach identified ten areas where the Government's economic renewal plan is working to generate the jobs we so badly need. They are confidence, credit, costs, infrastructure, innovation, foreign direct investment, small business, green enterprises, agri-food and tourism. I encourage Members to read his speech because it is constructive politics at its best. It sets out a national course for tackling unemployment and for the priority of getting people back to work as soon as possible.

With regard to our public finances, Ireland made a fiscal correction of 5% of GDP in 2009 and the correction will be 2.5% in 2010. Big decisions will also have to be made in the next budget and the Government and the Taoiseach must weigh up where expenditure savings can be made to restore fiscal stability in order that we can continue to attract investment and continue on the path to economic growth and job creation. The Government has learned hard lessons and taken difficult decisions. Our economy is emerging from recession and Ireland is strongly fighting back. The Government has creditable plans to take us forward on the path of sustainable economic growth. The plan is to fix the banks, restore order to our public finances, restore competitiveness, support enterprise and generate employment.