Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegation from Taiwan and hope the members enjoy their stay in our country. I ask the Leader to organise a debate on Longboat Quay and the plight of residents in that development. They face being evicted because fire safety certificates are not available. The Government needs to help them, and the people who signed off on those certificates, who deemed the workmanship to be up to standard, should be held to account. They are the ones who should ultimately foot the bill. I ask the Leader to organise a debate on that.

The Government can be accused of many things but it cannot be accused of following the wisdom of President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, when he said, "I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow." Not only is the Government not using the brains it has, but it is not even borrowing advice. It is certainly borrowing money. The way the backbenchers in the other House are going on, one would swear that we have the money to give away. Up to €1.5 billion is being talked about as a giveaway in the budget. Let me remind the House that we will borrow €1.7 billion in 2016. The interest payments on the national debt are €7 billion. What we are actually doing is taking money out of children's pockets in order to pay for the voters who can vote in the next election.

I ask for a debate on the McKinsey report, "Is Ireland's Population Ready for Retirement?" because our current pension system is unsustainable. The Social Insurance Fund has a deficit this year of €2 billion and a cumulative deficit over the last number of years of €10 billion, and by 2020, the deficit in the pension pot will be €20 billion. In 25 years' time, in 2040, the deficit for pensions will be €133 billion. It is entirely unsustainable. The Government cannot be accused of using the brains it has, or even of borrowing some brains, but it is borrowing money to buy votes.

I ask Senator Coghlan to contain himself if he can, because I want to talk about NAMA. In 2011, along with my Fianna Fáil colleagues, I introduced the NAMA and Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Transparency Bill. We asked the Government to accept the Bill on the premise that the public needed confidence in NAMA. I have confidence in the people who work in NAMA and in the systems they have in place but, as we have seen in the Committee of Public Accounts today and as we have seen in the North and in the Dáil, the issues that have been raised about the sale of property are something we should all be concerned about. The array of politicians who are now involved in this controversy is testament to the fact that legislation we proposed here, which was not about scoring points, would assist the Government in making sure the public had confidence in the system. It was about transparency. This is a huge portfolio that was sold on behalf of the taxpayer. There are always questions about whether there was value for money, but it is always about the process. Our job here as legislators is to ensure that the process has the public's confidence. For that reason, I ask the Leader opposite to consider looking again at the NAMA and Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Transparency Bill, which is about public confidence in NAMA. We could avoid what is happening in the Committee of Public Accounts today and all the controversy that it is generating and ensure that there will be no need for further Committee of Public Accounts hearings on that issue.