Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

It shows the scale of difficulty we faced in coming into office and the way in which we dealt with it. That is one example. If we are serious about the challenges faced by the country, the Government will need five years to deliver a programme to get the country to a better place. When one compares what Greece, a similar programme country, went through with what Ireland has gone through, the comparison ends there. It is a matter of considerable pride to the Government that since coming into office, we were told by all Members of the previous Government that we would not renegotiate the minimum wage. We were also told by all commentators that we would not renegotiate the minimum wage. I am very proud that one of the first decisions taken by the Government was to improve the situation whereby the previous Government shamelessly reduced the minimum wage. That is significant in circumstances where Greece has gone in the opposite direction. I am proud of the fact that, as highlighted in the debate on the Finance Bill, over 300,000 of the poorest of the poor workers in Ireland have been taken out of the universal social charge. Over 300,000 people on temporary, part-time and seasonal work have been given additional help as a result of measures introduced in the budget. That is something of which the Government can be proud. I am proud of savings we negotiated with the EU authorities on the bailout money, which will save between €9 billion and €10 billion over the course of the loans, which will make an enormous difference. More important, in the course of negotiations we did not have to concede on the issue of corporate taxation, which everyone predicted at the time.

I am proud of the fact that we were told if we sold State assets, the proceeds would have to be used in totality for paying back Government debt. That has not happened and we have been given an agreement that one third of the proceeds can go towards reinvestment, jobs and infrastructure in the economy. The whole point of this entire exercise was, step-by-step, to negotiate the programme Ireland was entered into by the previous Administration. The degree of flexibility is always difficult but we have managed to show significant tangible benefits to which Members can point.

As modestly as I can say it, the most significant thing that has happened is bank recapitalisation. The savings, as a result of decisions taken in March 2011, amount to over €5 billion from start to end. Last March, we were told 100% of Bank of Ireland would be State-owned by December of last year but it now stands at 15%. The best news about the Irish economy over the course of eight or nine months is that 85% of Bank of Ireland is in private ownership. A significant section of the bank was sold to US investors. The only way forward for this country is not just to get back to the markets and sell the State debt so that we can turn it over in the years to come, but also that investors start to put real deposits into the Irish banking system. I accept the criticism about our capacity to lend to the real economy. The Government is working day in and day out to achieve that. We set up a special banking unit within the Department. The Central Bank has demanded clear timeline reports from the banks, particularly the pillar banks, and we are seeing some small signs of success. It will not happen overnight.

The biggest problem we faced in coming into office was that deposits were still leaving Irish banks and the trend was still in a downward direction. That trend is now going in the other direction and money is coming back into the Irish banking sector. The cost of debt is reducing and, as a consequence, we have the potential of getting back to the markets in a substantive way sometime in 2013. We have already shown that we have managed to move some debt due in 2014, to 2015. It was only a partial re-entry to the markets but it is a significant dipping of our toes into the debt market and it sent a message of stability.

In the election campaign, we said we would do something different with mortgage interest relief for the people who purchased houses between 2004 and 2008. We delivered that in circumstances where everyone said it would not happen. We have also managed to produce a budget where there were no reductions in baseline primary social welfare rates at a time when there is a budget deficit of €15 billion. We managed not to increase income tax. We have increased indirect taxation. The plan to which the previous Government signed up to included moving indirect taxation from 21% to 23% over two years. The suggestion that the previous Government would not have done this is untrue because the previous Government signed up to it in the memorandum of understanding with the troika in 2010.