Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

This amendment affirms confidence in the Government's economic strategy and the leadership of the Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, and his Ministers. As I have said on previous occasions, the Taoiseach is a man of substance and of real integrity. In tough economic times, we need people in government with broad shoulders who will not be deflected by criticism. We need them to have the bottle to do what is right by the country and who will not be rattled or thrown off course by fleeting opinion polls.

This country is battling its way through a major economic crisis. I do not buy into the idea peddled by some in the Opposition in recent days that this country is banjaxed or an economic corpse. The past 13 years have seen a transformation in the facilities this country provides which is a credit to the Government. Those who deny this are not being honest with themselves or the people they represent.

I have always had a strong belief in the capacities and abilities of the Irish people. By working together, we can overcome our present difficulties. Since the middle of 2008, the Government has taken significant steps in response to the rapid deterioration in our public finances to stabilise the situation and return this country to a sustainable fiscal position.

Adjustments amounting to close to €15 billion have been implemented over the past two years. Yesterday's budgetary adjustment of an additional €6 billion is another crucial instalment in reaching the crucial 3% deficit target. It puts us on the road to recovery and back to job creation. With yesterday's budget, we are now two thirds of the way through the necessary adjustments.

The Government understands people want assurance and hope. I believe the four year recovery plan and budget provide this. The Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and the Government have shown leadership as a team and made the right decisions. The four year plan provides a roadmap for the future, enabling people to plan for it.

Others too have shown faith in Ireland's ability to overcome this crisis. It is a pity the main Opposition parties are not among them. They would do well to ponder the recent words of the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Olli Rehn:

The Irish are smart, resilient and stubborn people. They will get over this challenge and the EU is supporting them in that. Ireland has hit a very deep economic recession resulting from the financial crisis, which hit Ireland because of its credit boom and real estate bubble. But the economy will face up to serious challenges. Ireland has a flexible and open economy, which is capable of rebounding relatively rapidly from this recession.

I have no time for those who claim everything in this country is gone and all progress made wiped out. In just over a decade, we have put in place a world class national road network, 4,000 more gardaí and more than 9,000 special needs assistants. The social welfare budget has been trebled while the prices of goods and services increased by less than a third. There are many positives in our country today. Up to 1.86 million people are in work with a young educated workforce. The live register has stabilised for the third month running while redundancies are down 23% on this time last year.

Ireland is number one in the world for jobs created by foreign direct investment. Eight of the world's top ten technology firms are based in Ireland. Our exports are bucking the trend with the balance of payments of the economy moving into surplus. This important fact tells us that our economic relations with the rest of the world are firmly pointing towards our capacity to pay our way, to service our debts and to achieve economic and fiscal stability.

Regarding the burning of the banks' bondholders, I want to bring to the attention of the House a perceptive and intelligent article by Senator Harris in last weekend's Sunday Independent:

[Meantime,] I have no trust in those hurlers on the ditch, at home or abroad, who [blatantly] blithely speak of playing poker and burning the bondholders. The chips in this game are the Irish people. We cannot risk them being badly burned too.

Last week, Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan acted like leaders. [Eschewing] the empty bluster of Eamon Gilmore they settled for doing good rather than looking good. [Our] Fine Gael [colleagues] showed a firm touch too. Michael Noonan told Prime Time it would be "imprudent" to renege on senior debt except it was part of a general EU strategy.

Like Senator Harris, I too have no time for those hurlers on the ditch who want to gamble Ireland's future at a time when the real economy has stabilised, unemployment is falling and exports are growing strongly. It would be irresponsible to follow the course of action the Labour Party has set out on bondholders given its potential to cause havoc to our economy.