Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

This time last year the Labour Party and Fine Gael trenchantly opposed the budget, yet this year they are claiming credit for implementing it. We implemented it in the budget. What about the bank resolution legislation that enabled the Government to burn junior bondholders, which they trenchantly opposed this time last year in the Dáil?

Fine Gael Members have a habit of saying we are cutting X,Y and Z due to Fianna Fáil's deal with the troika. This non-stop mantra is getting tiresome and it adds nothing to political discourse in the country. Capital expenditure is one area where every ounce of responsibility for cuts, such as the Slane bypass in my own constituency and metro north in north Dublin, lies with Fine Gael Party and Labour Party Deputies and Senators. They are responsible for the 9,000 jobs that will be lost to the economy next year. I know some of those people who were waiting to see if metro north could get the go ahead so that they could continue in their jobs, and I am sure the Senators opposite know some of them too.

The Government has made much noise about the focus on health, education, jobs and enterprise, but the facts are that there is little or no reality to that. Some of the major projects in transport that are stalled or stopped include the Slane bypass, the A5 motorway, metro north, DART underground, the regional hospital in Navan, the prison at Thornton Hall - I understand there are plans for prisons at Army bases and I am investigating this, because it is not acceptable - and the relocation of the DIT to Grangegorman. This is sending out a signal to the world that we are not interested in third level education at a time when our university sector is under more pressure than ever.

Cutting capital spending is an easy option in a recession. It is what the Fine Gael Party and the Labour Party did in the 1980s. It is the wrong decision. Government backbenchers and Ministers were harking on about the need for stimulus in the economy when in opposition over the last few years, but when the opportunity arises to stimulate the economy through major infrastructure projects, they cut and cut because they do not want to take really tough decisions that we took and they opposed, even though they now claim credit for them.

My party is opposed to this spending programme. It goes much further than we were ever willing to go. It goes further than what the troika suggested we do. Let us nail this lie about the troika. Their representatives will tell anybody who has met them that they have no objection to whatever decisions this Government takes under its own economic sovereignty, provided the targets are reach. The Minister is agreeing with me. It was open to this Government to make its own decision on capital spending. It made its decision and we opposed it and the troika had no say over it, as long as the Government got to the bottom line, which we have to reach anyway.

Added to the hike in VAT being proposed in the budget and the failed jobs initiative, this is a deathly blow to the economy and something that all Government Members need to think long and hard about. When people complain to them about no hospitals and schools being built or repaired, they should tell them that these decisions were made to avoid other politically difficult decisions.