Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

Bertie Ahern and his cabal could not wait to bring everyone in and to dole out the goods. They forgot about the rainy day. This is a circle.

I say to the Minister of State, Deputy Connick, that the people must punish the political party that presided over all of this - Fianna Fáil. The party must be punished electorally for all eternity. Fianna Fáil deserves never to be elected to any House ever again because the party has no interest beyond its own interest. Fianna Fáil has no interest in the people whatsoever. The party has no respect for anything beyond getting elected. The example of that lies on page 91 of the document, which states that the income tax base has been eroded to an unsustainable level and that this must be rectified if revenue raising capacity and fairness are to be restored.

Today, on national television, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Micheál Martin, refused to accept any responsibility or acknowledge that Fianna Fáil had got it wrong. He and his Cabinet colleagues sat for 13 years around the Cabinet table and presided over budget after budget which brought us here to the mess we are in. The Government forgot about regulation, let the banks run ragged and now the gnáthduine, the ordinary person, must pay.

That is the reality. Fianna Fáil has bankrupted the country. The Government was handed an economy in surplus in 1997. In 13 years, Fianna Fáil has done what no other Government has done, it has bankrupted the country. On page 37 of the document, on social welfare, the plan states that the jobseeker rate of social welfare payment almost doubled between 2001 and 2009 before being reduced in the budget last year. If that is not an indictment of Government policy, and its failure to place value on work, I do not know what it is.

We have heard all about education and the smart economy from Ministers in this House. The Government, however, has completely removed the opportunities for people to be upskilled or to enter education. It is targeting people following courses in literacy, community education and Youthreach, the most vulnerable in our society. The college graduates in medicine and engineering will always be with us, they will always prosper. In my previous role as an adult education lecturer, however, I saw the difference in adults who went back to education and the number of young people who stayed in school because of Youthreach or the leaving certificate applied. Those people have been dealt a severe blow tonight.

What does the plan mean where it states that teachers and academic staff will work an additional one hour per week to provide for a wide range of needs in various institutions? Where are the specifics? On policing and defence, the document states that a more effective garda rostering system will ensure there are enough gardaí to meet priority policing demands. It was Fianna Fáil that said there would be zero tolerance. Is Fianna Fáil now saying the plan to increase the number of gardaí was wrong? It beggars belief.

Page 118 of the plan deals with community, rural and Gaeltacht affairs. It contains measures that target the most vulnerable. We all accept there is no easy way but this is not a road map, it is a fudge. The Minister for Finance has been wrong in every figure he has given. I am no economist and I am no genius, but I listen and watch. It is one thing to perform in front of a television camera as if one is in a court of law, but we are talking about ordinary people. Everything has changed. The budget and the Finance Bill should be taken early and we must have a general election because the people want the Government out. They have no confidence or belief in the Government and they do not trust it. They see this plan and think it is another tale. It is like a fairy tale but it is actually reality, because when they look in their pockets next month there will be little money there. How can we believe the Government?

This morning we woke up to talk of €85 billion from the ECB. Will that be enough? There has been a run on the banks this week. Senator MacSharry has probably had telephone calls, as I have, from people asking whether their money is safe. These are ordinary people who trust, or did trust, the Government. I met people in Donegal last weekend who asked me what they should do with their money. Are we to tell them to take it out and dig it into a trench in the back garden or put it in an English bank or some other bank? I have great respect for the Minister of State as a person, but the Government has led the people up to the hill and, unlike the Duke of York, it has just pushed them off. It has bankrupted our country in 13 years through populism at its worst. Its members have some nerve to stand before the people, but we live in a democracy and I am a democrat.

There is a different model. The Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, said on radio that any alternative plan was rubbish. I cannot see any Green Party Members. The Government party Members were talking about consensus for months. In this House it was like the seventh decade of the rosary. They said we must have consensus. They did not listen when it came to the banks or the last two budgets, and they did not listen when they were preparing the four year plan, yet they want consensus. The Government wants Fine Gael to vote for the budget next week, and then its backbenchers will go off to the four corners of the country and say they stood by the people, they did not cut the old age pension, but Fine Gael did. The Minister for Finance changed all that with his comments. He said that any alternative plan was rubbish. This is from the man who has got it wrong so often. He has not got one figure right. I would love to see all the opinion writers who said he was the best Minister for Finance since the foundation of the State. There was an avalanche. He spoke in Béal na Bláth. He could nearly walk on water. He has been wrong, wrong and wrong.