Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran. Having listened to the debate, there have been some singularly constructive contributions from the Opposition. This is welcome, given our position. I listened to today's "Morning Ireland", on which a socialist member of the Portuguese Government acknowledged that Portugal's Opposition was abstaining on the fiscal and taxation measures being introduced. When the RTE correspondent noted how strange that was and asked why the country's Opposition would do such a thing, the member said it was a sign of Portugal's political maturity. I am glad the same is starting to dawn on certain people within our Opposition. It is just a pity that we did not have it for the past two years. It would have been helpful and we might have made more advances.

I welcome the plan. It is courageous and tackles in a responsible way those areas that require tackling. I was particularly impressed by the contributions by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance at the news conference and subsequently on the news. They were reassuring. It is obvious that they have a grasp, a vision, but above all they have the courage as politicians facing into an election where they know they are going to be unpopular, to put the country first. That is something the Taoiseach told the parliamentary party more than two years ago, and I very much welcome the fact that he has continued on that path despite much of the personalised vilification from sections of the media, and others as well, perhaps.

I welcome the fact the minimum wage is being tackled, and I had hoped it might have been done before this. I just wonder whether it is a significant reduction, but at least it is a start in the right direction. It is becoming a wedge and I know of people moving into the black economy as a consequence. Employers cannot get people to work. However, I would strongly welcome if the joint labour committee, JLC, agreements which are totally unsustainable in today's climate, were addressed. They are totally unsustainable in today's climate, with people here being paid €2 to €4 more than they would get in Germany, the strongest economy in Europe. It is not sustainable and the JLCs should be suspended as a matter of urgency.

I believe the €15 billion figure is correct, although I wonder whether it will be sufficient. I note it will comprise €5 billion in taxation and expenditure cuts of €10 billion, but I would have liked to have seen that varied. The €10 billion in expenditure cuts should have been exclusively in the current expenditure area, and the €5 billion in taxation is too much. It should have been €3 billion in taxation and €2 billion in capital expenditure. Perhaps we might be able to move in that direction. I have some concerns about the projections being predicated on 2.75% growth in GDP. Ireland is a very open economy, and given what has happened in the US and the EU my view is that we may not see more than half that level of growth achieved during the period of the plan.

I have mentioned public service pay and the professions here before. I am glad there is focus on the professions in this, but we really need strong action to back the words towards having a rigorous promotion of competition within the system. I would like to see the Competition Authority's 2006 report on legal and professional fees, which has not been acted upon, being implemented. It is unconscionable that we are still paying people €2,500 a day in the tribunals and in the Four Courts, and I do not believe we can stand over the fact that people on low incomes are paying taxes so that those people may get these types of increases.

Finally, pay and numbers employed in the public service need to be tackled far more strenuously than we have done to date. I believe the figure of 24,500 is too low, and unless the Croke Park agreement yields enormous savings, which I do not anticipate given the make-up of the implementation body, we shall have to return to adjust this, probably within the next 12 months.