David Norris (Independent)

It is difficult to know what to say on an occasion such this. I was in the Visitors Gallery of the Dáil yesterday, as were many of my colleagues, listening and witnessing what happened as the budget was presented by a man with whom I have a professional friendship and whom I respect and like, Deputy Brian Lenihan. What appalled me was the spurious air of formality given by the production of the document, which is just like all the other budgets. The atmosphere in the House, the tables at the back and the supplementary leaflet were all as if everything was just as usual. In the Minister's opening statement, he said this had been a traumatic and worrying time for the citizens of the country. That is the understatement of the year. I would say apocalyptic on a biblical scale. Later that evening, when I heard the Bank of Ireland ATMs were vomiting money onto the snow, I decided to pack my bags and get off home before it started raining blood and I was attacked by an army of frogs on O'Connell Street. We had the locusts in last week and we fed them our elderly, our infirm and our weak. They gobbled them up greedily and now they are back for more. We are still supine because this country and its workers have been sold into slavery. This must be particularly difficult for the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh. There has been a betrayal of the principles on which this State was founded and, in particular, of the ideals so movingly expressed in the Proclamation of Easter 1916. In what manner could this budget be held to cherish all the children of the nation equally? It simply does not. In microcosm, it does what the ECB and IMF have done to us in that it privileges the rich and disadvantages the poor.

I cannot possibly agree to this. There is no vote allowed in the Seanad; we are not to be trusted with finance. How extraordinary and laughable it is that Senators are not regarded as worthy to have a proper say, control or a vote on a budget such as this because we might be irresponsible. There has been plenty of real irresponsibility in the other House and it cannot be covered by any quantity of cant about what a wonderful, resilient people we are and how we must act in the national interest, ensure we show the country in a positive light and be careful of our reputation. We have very little reputation left and it is time we faced the facts.

The Minister's speech in the Dail yesterday was full of logical jumps, gaps, inconsistencies and points that are difficult to believe. He stated: "For the period out to 2014, real GDP is forecast by my Department to increase by an average of almost 2.75% per annum". Does anyone believe any of the figures that come out of the Department of Finance? They have been wrong for so long. I remember saying long before this crisis that the Department of Finance rarely got any of its figures or forecasts right. My attention was drawn to this by the late Mr. Ken Monaghan, a nephew of James Joyce and a banker. Over coffee, he and I used to discuss the production of these figures. We tallied how disastrously wrong they inevitably were.

The Minister asked the following question:

So if the real economy is poised to grow, why do we need the help of the IMF and the EU? The answer is that we need their support to break the vicious cycle that has threatened our national finances and our banking system.

No, not at all. The answer is that he was so ineffably stupid as to give the banks a blanket guarantee. This was the astonishing and catastrophic mistake. Everything else could be dealt with, although with difficulty and hardship for all of us, which one would hope would be spread equally.

I return to the principle of equality. It is some years since I used my Private Members' time to take on what the Government was doing in seeking to undermine the agencies that spoke out for the vulnerable and marginalised going into this economic blizzard, which was bound to create levels of poverty never seen before, by abolishing Combat Poverty Agency, undermining the Equality Authority and attacking the Irish Human Rights Commission. The Government did this and it was sly, underhand and indefensible but so was the behaviour of the media. I do not expect them automatically to cover every word I say - I am not that self-important - nor do I think they will bother themselves with the debate at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, but I took the opportunity to issue written statements and the full text of what I said to every media outlet and not one took it up. Having given advance notice of the serious matter of what the Government was clearly doing, I advanced my case by argument and systematic analysis with facts and figures inside the named groups and Departments and I was astonished it was never covered. I regard it as a moral dereliction because the people should have been warned that this was happening.

The guarantee was so obviously wrong and it does not give me any huge satisfaction to know I voted against it. My conscience is clear but that will not help anyone. Let us look at the groups that are being victimised: carers, the blind and the disabled. This is the most astonishing dereliction of duty.

I will make a few brief comments as I did not realise the time was going quite so quickly. The car scrappage scheme is a load of complete rubbish. Who does it help? It helps the Germans, whose banks we are paying. We have been turned into a money-laundering machine for the ECB, the German, Swiss, Italian, French and British banks. We are now helping their car industry as well because the profits are for the manufacture of cars, not for their resale and distribution. What we should have said to those groups is that if they want us to be a money-laundering machine, we would oblige them for a small fee. Otherwise, we will do a Samson and pull the whole thing down around their ears and see how they would like being in it, the same as they have put us into it, because they did, with their easy money and stress tests on the banks that were all over the place. I have very serious concerns about that.

The Minister said that public debate on our currency has focused almost exclusively on our banks. He also said that much of what was said is plain wrong. Much of it is right, but it is just very uncomfortable. A lot of what was said is very weak. The Minister said he does not know whether any alternative Government would have done better. That is the weakest and most pathetic thing I have heard.

Anyone who wants to know the amount of damage that has been wreaked only had to look at "The Frontline" with Pat Kenny last Monday. A young woman and her mother were in the audience. The young woman had supplied a question by e-mail. She was directed by Pat Kenny to direct the questions and material contained in the email to a Minister. She had difficulty remembering it. She was abashed. When the programme returned later to her mother, the woman said her daughter had suffered. One only had to look at the faces of those two women to realise they were traumatised. That is a horrible legacy. I wish I had the opportunity to vote against the budget because vote against it I most certainly would.