Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It seems the new word in everyone's vocabulary is "space". As Senator Barrett will be aware, the Chairman of the banking inquiry constantly spoke about space. In any case, the recovery has provided fiscal space in the economy. Ultimately, this is a people's recovery, rather than a Brendan Howlin, Michael Noonan, Fine Gael or Labour Party recovery. People sacrificed so much in recent years that we now have room for manoeuvre.

The recovery occurred for two reasons - namely, external factors such as low oil prices, low interest rates and high export growth, and the implementation by the Government of the four-year plan drawn up by the former Minister for Finance, the late Brian Lenihan. Having opposed the plan in its entirety in advance of the previous general election, the Labour Party and Fine Gael in government implemented every aspect of it. The Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and, to a lesser extent, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform travel the world on a back-slapping trail collecting accolades that arguably belong to the late Brian Lenihan. They then return home and blame Fianna Fáil and everyone else for everything that occurred. As Senators Barrett and Michael D'Arcy will confirm, the Minister for Finance informed the banking inquiry that the Government had implemented Brian Lenihan's four-year plan when he described it as a pretty good plan which he decided to stick with.

Senator Hayden argued that the Government's previous five budgets were not regressive. The Economic and Social Research Institute, not the Fianna Fáil Party, concluded that the previous five budgets were regressive in that they focused on the higher paid and returned a little more to that group than to other groups. The same applies to the current budget. For example, to take the changes in the universal social charge, a person with an income of €18,868 will pay the same rate of USC as a person on 3.5 times that income. That is not equal.

While certain things have improved in statistical terms, the Government's greatest failure has been the two-tier recovery. Of the jobs created through foreign direct investment, FDI, 95% have been in the greater Dublin area. One can imagine how such statistics sit with the more than 50% of the population who live outside Dublin in rural and regional areas, especially when considered against the backdrop of an allocation of a whopping €30 million over the next six years to offset the difficulties the recession caused in rural areas, where only 5% of FDI jobs have been created.

In the case of housing, a dividend from the National Asset Management Agency will result in the construction of 20,000 houses by 2021, of which 90% will be built in the greater Dublin area. This will leaves 2,000 new NAMA homes for the rest of the country. If the Government were to alleviate the housing problem in County Sligo by addressing the waiting list of 1,000 people, only 1,000 new homes would be left for the other 24 counties outside Dublin. One can understand the reason this would create an issue.