Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I am glad we are having this debate. Over recent weeks Members of this House have led the way politically with regard to encouraging debate, discussing the options and trying to project where the country should go politically and economically over the next crucial months. I listened with interest to Senator O'Malley's comments on the number of budgets and Government changes that took place in the 1981 to 1982 period. There is much to learn from reflection on that period. The political gamesmanship that took place between 1981 and 1983 was very bad for the economy. People will recall that tens of thousands emigrated in the immediate aftermath. There were huge difficulties with high levels of taxation, massive current budget deficits and so forth as well as the difficulties which all the political parties experienced due to their failure to grasp the economic nettle and to take the necessary decisions.

There is one interesting political lesson from that period, although I do not have sufficient time to go into the history and the political lessons. My colleagues will recall that the budget introduced by Garret FitzGerald's first Government, the famous footwear and clothing budget, resulted in the fall of that Government. The Government had presented a harsh budget which was rejected by the Dáil. This led to a general election and there was an expectation that night in Leinster House, in the media and across the country that the outgoing Fine Gael-Labour Party Government would be wiped out and Fianna Fáil would somehow sweep to power. What happened is a lesson to us today. Over the course of the election campaign the public was given an explanation of the purpose of that tough budget and people clearly saw we were not living in cloud cuckoo land and that tough decisions had to be made. Admittedly, the outgoing Government was defeated in the election, but only by a very narrow margin. There was a positive public response to a difficult set of financial measures introduced by Garret FitzGerald and John Bruton. We can all take a little consolation from that because it shows the public is ahead of, not behind, the politician in regard to the economic and political situation.

Senator O'Malley wondered whether the forthcoming budget will be passed. I hope for Ireland's sake - and "Ireland first" is the slogan we should work under for the next few weeks and months - that a budget can be agreed and I hope my party will play a constructive, engaging and important role in presenting policies which the Government will be mature enough to take on board. No political party has all the answers. If there were such a political party, there would be no problems. We all have a role to play and I would be very despondent, disappointed and concerned for the future of this country if a small number of Independent Deputies, for whom their constituency is all and their country is secondary, decide what will and will not pass in a budget next December. That would be a recipe for economic and social disaster in this country. When the Opposition engages with the Government over the next few weeks and when, it is hoped, probably for the first time in the history of the State, the Government will be willing to engage genuinely with the Opposition and take on board some of its suggestions, I hope we can arrive at a political truce, as I called it some weeks ago in the House, whereby a set of budgetary figures for the December budget and a general economic outlook for the next four years can be agreed on an all-party basis. That is crucial for the sake of this country.

We cannot recoil from the fact that over the next weeks and months the Government, regardless of its political composition, must beg and grovel before the bankers and the markets in order that they will deliver to its economic satchel the €19 billion required to keep the country ticking over next year. The money to pay teachers and nurses, keep hospital wards open, pay social welfare recipients, provide medical card coverage and so forth will come from foreign bankers and we must show the colour of our economic plan to secure that money. These are crucial weeks and months, not just for Ireland today but for the future of the country.

All Members of this House have been in the political game for some time but we have never faced such challenges. Conversely, neither have we ever faced such opportunities. The people recognise for the first time ever in a clear, concise and precise fashion that the economy is broken and in urgent need of repair and that neither old economic policies nor old politics will work. We need something different, radical and new. The beginning of that new project will be co-operation between all politicians on the basis of putting our country first.

I listened in awe to the speech of former Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave, in the Mansion House a fortnight ago when he launched David McCullagh's book about another former Taoiseach, John A. Costello. As I listened to a 35 minute speech par excellence by Mr. Cosgrave, I kept thinking of his election campaign slogan when Ireland faced a different but profound difficulty in 1973, which was "Cosgrave puts the country first". Now is the time for every political party to put the country first, which means we have to park traditional political bickering, fighting and back-stabbing and put forward a set of policies appropriate to the Ireland of today.

The budget deficit is causing the taxpayer, not the Government, to borrow €400 million every week and that is not sustainable. We all recognise painful adjustments will be required. We have to plead that they will be fair and balanced and everybody will pay his or her fair share. There is a massive need for political reform to provide for more accountability to the Dáil and the Seanad for the collection and expenditure of Exchequer revenues and to point out the different political and economic options available.

We can build a spring time of hope from Ireland's winter of discontent by looking at the bigger picture and accepting the need for huge political leaps of faith and courage and new politics, which includes new ways for the Dáil and Seanad to work together and for co-operation between Government and Opposition. We will have our political battles over the next 12 months and a general election will be called. I do not intend to annoy my Fianna Fáil colleagues but they will suffer hugely, as is only appropriate, for the decisions they have taken over the past 13 long years. In the interim, I want all of us to work together to turn around this ship of state to stop it from sinking and then get it back to safe waters. We can agree on a formula but that will begin and end with co-operation and I hope we will all be big enough to recognise the scale of the problem and the possibilities for solving it.