The Taoiseach in his speech used the verb "change" almost 20 times and that is not counting the number of times he used the term "reconfiguration". This is what change looks like, but this is not change. This will not change anything in the life of a single family or household in this country this evening. At best this is change delayed and change delayed is change denied. This is still a tired, out of touch, out of ideas, out of time Fianna Fáil Government. "Change" was not a word that was high on the Taoiseach's priority at the time of the last general election. I remember he said then that "if the car is going well, you don't change to a Lada". The Irish people took him at his word and hung on to the old model. It is now 13 years old. If it was a taxi, the regulator would not allow it on the road. All the Taoiseach has done today——
Nomination of Members of the Government: Motion (Resumed).
The Deputy would not be allowed to import a Lada.
——is put on a few remoulds and a few squirts of spray on the rust of a clapped out model that has a 1970s registration.
It has a green engine.
It is not change.
It is a sustainable car.
It is not change we should be talking about in this respect but scrappage.
One would not even get scrappage for it.
We need to get rid of this Government. The country needs a fresh start, not just some kind of, as the Taoiseach called it, reconfiguration of what we have already.
Hear, hear.
There are only a handful of people in the country who really care about this exercise in spin with which we have been presented this afternoon. They are the people who have been selected for bigger office and a bigger car. I congratulate the Ministers elect, Deputies Carey and Killeen, for whom I have personal regard.
This Government does not care about the purpose of governing; it cares only about power. This exercise is not about the revival of the economy or the revival of the country but the survival of Fianna Fáil in Government for a longer period of time than this country can afford. The purpose of Government should be to reflect the will of the people, their values, hopes and aspirations and it should be to lead and to navigate this country out of the treacherous waters in which we now find ourselves. Above all, it should to serve the people to put the national community first before party politics or individual egos. On all three counts this Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government has failed. This is a Government without a mandate. No Government since the foundation of the State has had such low approval ratings. With almost nine out of ten people indicating they do not support this Government, it no longer reflects the will of the people and certainly does not reflect their values.
Irish people do not want their future and their children's future mortgaged to NAMA. They do not want to take on the massive debts of reckless property developers who lived high on the boom and are protected by their Fianna Fáil friends in the bust. This Government cannot lead. To lead, one needs to get people to row in behind one. Instead, this Government has repeatedly sown division, pitched public sector against private sector and targeted children, mothers, the unemployed, the poor, the elderly, the disabled and others who rely on public services for their quality of life. It has put its own needs and those of the governing parties before the needs of people.
The Government was re-elected in 2007 on a set of promises, central to which was an assertion, made by the Taoiseach more than most, that only the Fianna Fáil Party could manage the economy. On 14 May 2007, when the Taoiseach and then Minister for Finance launched his party's economic policy he stated: "People know what they vote for when they vote for Fianna Fáil. They know precisely what they are voting for." He also indicated that his party's policies were based on "responsible budgets" and his Government would pass on the country "effectively debt free" to the next generation. He pledged €844 million worth of tax cuts annually, including the halving of PRSI. People voted for these commitments. Instead of cutting tax, however, the Government cut wages. Instead of putting money into people's pockets, as the Fianna Fáil Party said it would do, it has taken €11 billion out of taxpayers' pockets and used it to shore up the books of the banks and overstretched developers.
The fiction that only Fianna Fáil can manage the economy is betrayed in how fast the economy unravelled on its watch. Ireland was first to enter recession and we will be the last out of it. Our recession is deeper and will last longer because Fianna Fáil allowed our economy to be built on sand. It turned the export-led economy it inherited from the Labour Party Minister for Finance, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, into a property bubble. Instead of attending to the long-term competitiveness of the economy, it gambled on a consumption boom. The Fianna Fáil Party prided itself on reducing the national debt but instead transferred this debt to every Irish household in the form of impossibly high mortgages and repayments for the costs of NAMA.
The Fianna Fáil Party turned a blind eye to reckless lending by the banks. After all, it needed the banks to maintain the boom. Now that the party is over, it is ordinary people who are left to clean up the mess. In February 2010, some 436,000 people were on the dole, 85,000 of whom were aged under 25 years. Some 283,000 people have joined the live register since the 2007 general election and 340 people have lost their jobs every day since the Taoiseach's appointment. In 2009 alone, an average of four firms went bust every day. It is predicted that the number of business closures in 2010 will be approximately 2,000. The Insolvency Journal estimates that five firms went bust every day in February 2010. Across the economy, in both the public and the private sector, people have taken significant pay cuts.
The Taoiseach states we must regain our lost competitiveness. Who presided over this loss of competitiveness? Ireland's economy has been losing competitiveness since 2003 and for much of the intervening period, while the Taoiseach was Minister for Finance, he presided over soaring costs of housing and commercial property rents, all of which pushed up costs and made the economy less competitive.
The Taoiseach is happy to talk about competitiveness when it means asking a nurse earning €35,000 per year to take an 8% pay cut. Where was his Government's support for competitiveness two weeks ago when the Labour Party introduced a proposal in the House to address problems in the commercial rental sector by giving some relief to retailers who are facing serious competitiveness problems? I remind the House that the Government voted down our proposal. It does not have a plan to create new jobs or improve our competitiveness. The only action we have seen from it is a miserable policy of driving down wages and quality of life, while waiting to hop on the coat tails of a European recovery.
The Government will not even agree to have an inquiry into what occurred in the banking sector. The reason is that such an inquiry would land at the Government's door and expose the Taoiseach's role, as Minister for Finance, in presiding over what occurred in the banking system. In particular, the Government will not allow us to examine what happened in September 2008 when it provided a blanket guarantee for the banks.
Since 2007, tax revenue has declined by 34% in nominal terms from €47.25 billion to €31.05 billion. This demonstrates that it is a lie to suggest the Fianna Fáil Party could satisfactorily manage the economy.
I could address many areas arising from the proposals before the House. I was struck, however, by the Taoiseach's words on the centrality of jobs. He is correct in that regard. This is what the Labour Party has been saying since before the recession. If jobs are so central, why has it taken the Taoiseach two years to cop on to that fact? The Taoiseach did not take the opportunity in the long lead-in we endured while he was celebrating his election as leader of the Fianna Fáil Party and before he became Taoiseach to do the reconfiguration that would have placed an emphasis on jobs. This is being done belatedly and in a way that adds more confusion to the organisation of Government Departments than it clarifies.
The Government has removed employment from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. It is extraordinary.
One of the extraordinary aspects of today's announcement is what the Taoiseach did not do. Why is the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, still in office? By any standards, she should be removed from office. While I acknowledge she has been a good Minister in other Departments and has made a major contribution to public life, her record as Minister for Health and Children has been hopeless.
Since 2007, we have had a series of crises in the health service. In August 2007 a HIQA investigation resulted in breast cancer services in Barrington's Hospital in Limerick being suspended. In November of the same year, 97 women had to be re-tested after a review of mammograms in the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise. In September 2008, an inquiry was announced into Ennis General Hospital. In November 2008, nine lung cancer patients received delayed diagnoses. During the Minister's recent absence from the country arising from her visit to New Zealand, we learned that X-rays and letters of referral had not been read in Tallaght hospital.
The Minister's solution to bed shortages and other problems in the health system is to build private clinics under some form of public-private partnership arrangement. Even that policy, misguided as it was, has collapsed in the new economic circumstances. I propose to give two local examples which show where the Government's health policies are failing. On Saturday morning last, I received a telephone call from the family of a patient suffering from bowel cancer who had been admitted to a hospital on Thursday last week and was still on a trolley in the accident and emergency department. When my office contacted the hospital concerned it received this reply:
I spoke to X in A & E. She spoke to Y and his family this morning and explained the bed situation. There are no beds, 3 patients from A & E went to theatre this morning and there are no beds for them either. She does not expect the situation to change within the next 24/36 hours. They are doing the best they can.
This is our health system in 2010, after many years under the Minister, Deputy Harney, whom the Taoiseach has chosen to leave in charge of the service.
I welcome the appointment of my colleague, Deputy Ciarán Cuffe, as Minister of State and wish him well. My constituency is now teeming with Ministers, of whom there are three.
Deputy Gilmore does not mind tough competition.
Yes, the competition is very tough.
In 2002, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Micheál Martin, who was then Minister for Health and Children, entered into a commitment with the National Rehabilitation Hospital that if the hospital sold nine acres of land to an adjoining company, a new national rehabilitation hospital would be built. Every Member of the House is familiar with this hospital. It is where people go after car accidents or with acquired brain injury. Everybody speaks very highly of it. I stood in that hospital yesterday, in a 19-bed ward of mixed genders that had two open bathrooms at the end of the ward. It was from the 19th century. I talked with the people there about the need to build a new hospital. They went to tender at the end of 2008 and accepted a tender at the beginning of 2009. They are still waiting.
The Deputy has one minute.
They are still waiting for the Minister, Deputy Harney, to sign off and approve that tender so that the hospital can be built.
My constituency can do without three Ministers although I wish the best of luck to all three. However, we cannot do without the building of that hospital. Interestingly, when the Taoiseach reviewed the programme for Government last summer he removed any reference to the hospital. The person who has now been appointed a Minister of State, whose job I would have thought was to keep an eye on these matters, did not appear to notice, make a complaint or insist that the hospital be kept in the programme.
What we have been offered today is not a fresh start or a change but what may be termed the "same old, same old". I wish the individuals who are being appointed to ministerial office well but this is not what the people are looking for. Everywhere I go in this country I am asked one question, namely, "When are you getting them out?" Unfortunately, we cannot get them out on the Opposition benches. However, I put this challenge to each of the so-called Independent Members.
Hear, hear.
If they vote for the re-election of this Government they cannot tell the people in Thurles, Killarney or Seán McDermott Street that they oppose the Government. They shoulder the responsibility for having kept it in office far longer than it should be and far longer than the people want it to be there.
The Taoiseach's announcement today of a Government reshuffle shows very clearly that this Government is working well and effectively together.
There is no doubt about that. It is sticking well together.
Everybody is leaving.
On behalf of the people we are working to get out of recession. We are now in a space where we can implement——
We are in space.
The Government is spaced all the time.
——very effectively the innovative renewed programme for Government which places its emphasis on unemployment and dealing with that problem. I agree with the previous speakers that this is the biggest question we face. It is a crisis, particularly for young people. I know them personally and have spoken to them. Many of us in this House experienced at first hand unemployment during the 1980s. We know it is a scourge that must be dealt with.
These are weasel words.
The way to deal with this is by facing up to reality and taking the hard decisions.
The only jobs you created were for yourselves.
Deputy Allen, no interruptions please.
It will be shown that this was a Government that took the hardest decisions in the history of this State.
Weasel words.
We had to take those tough decisions because in the first place we had to deal with the public finances and the banking crisis. If one looks objectively at what has been achieved one will see that a great deal of work has been done to make this country a fairer place. First, we dealt with the tax system and restructured it. We also had to ensure we got to the tax exiles which is something that has not been done before. We had to ensure we cut off the tax loopholes. We had to introduce new taxes which should have been introduced many years ago, including taxes on second homes. This was never done before and we have done it. The record will show that.
You took money from people with disabilities——
We also restructured local government.
——and from blind people.
A Deputy
What about the incinerator?
Allow the Minister speak.
That is the way forward. We also continue the crucial investment in capital projects.
What restructuring was made in local government?
The continued and increased investment in flood protection and water infrastructure is something of which my party is very proud. Again, I thank our colleagues in Government for working closely with us on those issues.
I congratulate the incoming Ministers but first I wish to say a few words about those Ministers who have resigned. I wish the former Minister and Deputy, Martin Cullen, well. His health problems are of such a great nature he must take time out and I wish him and his family well in his recovery. Likewise I wish Deputy Willie O'Dea well. I say to him that I shall continue my work in dealing with his town, Limerick. We have done considerable work in my Department and are dealing for the first time with the boundary issue in Limerick and with the regeneration issue there. These are both very important issues.
I congratulate the incoming Ministers, Deputies Pat Carey and Tony Killeen. I note that two of my Ministers of State have gone on to higher office, showing that we can nurture talent in the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
I believe the Minister has a Gladstone complex.
The two incoming Ministers will do tremendous work.
They will, of course.
I know from working with Deputy Carey on Dublin City Council that he takes a very balanced approach to all issues. That was evident in his work as Chief Whip.
I wish to pay tribute to my colleague, Deputy Trevor Sargent. It has been a very difficult time for him and the manner of his parting showed——
It has been a difficult time for the garda he threatened as well.
Deputy Varadkar has been particularly ungracious because usually when a colleague departs the scene in this House there is a moment during which we pay tribute to him or her but that was not evident with the Deputy. I noticed his comments on the radio.
Even Deputy Kenny——
It is wrong of the Deputy to behave in that way. When a person departs in that fashion one should take a moment out from adversarial politics and simply pay tribute.
It was wrong, too, to threaten a young garda.
Deputy Varadkar, do not make charges against a man.
One thing Deputy Sargent did was to work tirelessly for Ireland's food sector for more than two and a half years. He worked to develop horticulture in his own constituency of Dublin North, the sector's powerhouse, and across the country. He worked on developing the farmers' markets which increased in numbers on his watch by an impressive 25%. Deputy Sargent framed an action plan to deliver an organic target of 5%, as agreed in the programme for Government. This is on target to be achieved in the lifetime of this Government. Areas farmed organically increased by 10% in his first year in office. He also launched a hugely successful scheme to have primary pupils grow vegetables and fruit and he helped secure private sponsorship to keep this scheme alive despite spending cutbacks. It shows the passion and commitment he brought to that office.
It did not bring us out of recession.
Creating jobs will bring us out of recession. That is what this is about. That is what this Government is about, namely, concentrating on creating jobs.
Only for yourselves.
May we hear the Minister, without interruption?
It is not about empty rhetoric nor about having it every single way. It is easy to do that in Opposition but it is hard in Government. Perhaps the Members will get the opportunity but——
Sooner rather than later.
I hope they will have the guts to take hard decisions but I do not see that happening.
You have not got the guts.
Deputy Kehoe, the Minister without interruption.
I also wish to pay tribute to my two colleagues who are now privileged to enjoy junior ministerial status. My deputy leader, Deputy Mary White, from Carlow, will bring her own fresh perspective to her job as someone from rural Ireland who understands the concerns of that constituency. Deputy Ciarán Cuffe, with whom I served on Dublin City Council for a long time, is a qualified architect and planner and is someone who has a specialist knowledge in that area. That is something about which we talk a lot. Too often in this House we have generalists.
The Minister is on talking terms with the Deputy again.
I am happy to say this Government is talking loud and clear on the issues that matter to people in this country. Deputy Cuffe will bring to his new task the passion and commitment I have seen in him for so long. As Deputies are aware, he has dual citizenship.
He will be able to leave the country then.
Politics is in his blood. He is related to a very famous political family in the United States.
I hope he has an American passport.
I understand he has.
A former Taoiseach had one.
This Government will continue, with vision and vigour, to tackle the problems that matter to the Irish people. We live in a bubble in Leinster House.
That is just the Minister.
Speculation may be rife in here, but it does not matter a whit to people outside this House. They are concerned about their livelihoods and their jobs. They want to see the Government getting on with it. They want us to make these decisions. Those of us who travelled abroad recently understand that it is now recognised internationally that Ireland is tackling its problems. As we tackle them, we will come out of recession and create jobs and this Government will have done a very good job for the Irish people.
The Minister did not mention Deputy Gogarty.
No mention was needed.
Who will mind him on the back benches?
Deputy Kehoe, please. I call Deputy Ó Caoláin.
Deputy Gogarty must be very disappointed that he never even got a mention.
Deputy Kehoe is a Whip, for heaven's sake.
As they leave the Chamber, I earnestly congratulate Deputies Killeen and Pat Carey on their promotions to full ministerial office. I also congratulate those who have been brought onto the junior benches. However, I do not doubt that the real news today is that not one previous office holder has been removed from office. It is a clear indication that if it had not been for the situations applying in the cases of the former Ministers, Deputies O'Dea and Cullen, we would not be looking at any new Ministers today. We will be asked to vote for a sham, in effect, when the Taoiseach asks us to endorse this partially reshuffled Cabinet. There should be no mistake about our answer — we will not endorse this charade of a Government. Rather than engaging in this partial reshuffle, the members of the Government should be shuffling out of office with their heads held down in shame. The Taoiseach's focus is on retaining jobs for the boys and girls in Fianna Fáil, and the boys and girl in the Green Party.
Over 432,000 unemployed citizens of this State are watching this game of musical chairs. Further thousands of people are looking on from overseas, having been forced to emigrate by this Government's policies. One in four young people in Ireland is unemployed. Unemployment among young people in the Twenty-six Counties increased by 150% in 2009, to 85,000 at the start of 2010. Nationally, the toll continues to rise towards 500,000. If the figures for those who have emigrated as a result of the recession were taken into account, the figure of 500,000 would be exceeded. What have unemployed young people got in response to their plight from a Government that seeks our endorsement for these measures? Without putting a tooth in it, they have got a two-fingered gesture from Fianna Fáil and the Green Party. That is the salute they got from the coalition Government when it cut dole payments for the young in budget 2010. The Taoiseach should ask young people whether they care about whose faces sit around the Cabinet table, about who was elevated or about who was disappointed because they were not shuffled upwards.
I would have no hesitation in welcoming this Cabinet reshuffle if it were accompanied by fundamental changes in Government policies, but there is no such change. Having listened to and reread the Taoiseach's contribution to this afternoon's debate, it is clear that there is no such change. The reshuffled Fianna Fáil-Green Party Cabinet is on the same course to disaster that it has steered since it came together in June 2007.
It is clear that there will be no change in health policy. The Minister, Deputy Harney, is prolonging her tenure as Minister for Health and Children, in which she has made an inequitable health service even more inequitable, for example by promoting for-profit privatisation and ruthless centralisation. We know too well the results of the disastrous health policies that have been pursued by Fianna Fáil-led Governments since 1997. As I said during the debate on the matter in this House before the St. Patrick's Day recess, the debacle in Tallaght hospital was not simply the result of a glitch in a single hospital. It was a clear example, albeit apparently an extreme one, of the systemic failures that are evident in our health service each day. At the root of such failures is the two-tier, public-private, apartheid nature of the health system. That inequity breeds inefficiency and leads to waste, which is compounded by under-resourcing. In addition, the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government imposed cuts in the 2009 and 2010 budgets that affect public patients worst of all.
The Tallaght hospital debacle perfectly illustrates the Pontius Pilate attitude of this Government. The Minister for Health and Children was told about the unread X-rays last December but apparently did not trouble herself to ask how many X-rays were involved, or to keep on top of the situation to ensure it was being addressed. This is her first appearance in the House since this crisis exploded in our faces and visited such worry on thousands of families across the country. An inquiry has been established only because a whistle-blower went to the media and exposed the whole affair to public view. If that had not happened, how long would it have taken the affected patients to be informed? They would not have wanted to have depended on the Minister to advise them. Why did the Minister not make the situation public in the first instance, to ensure openness, transparency and accountability? That is the question the Minister, Deputy Harney, must answer.
This reshuffle signals no change in the policy of imposing savage cuts on public services. This policy is futile in its claimed intent to aid economic recovery and punitive in its effects on the people. Before I give an example in the education sector, where the Tánaiste has a new role, I would like to express my disagreement with the remark made earlier to the effect that education is a lesser portfolio. Responsibility for education is a hugely important matter. I wish to refer to a letter I received last week from a school in my constituency where a special class has been suppressed, two teaching posts have been cut and children with a multiplicity of special needs have been put back into the mainstream classes from which they were removed on foot of an assessment by a psychologist from the Department of Education and Science.
This reshuffle will preserve the fundamentally flawed economic approach of the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government. Its slash and burn policy will not lead to recovery but to deeper recession. Just as this policy penalises citizens today, NAMA will penalise them in the future. The golden circle of politicians, bankers, property speculators and the corporate elite, who profited most from the Celtic tiger and caused the recession, are protecting themselves at a cost of billions of euro to future generations of Irish people.
The cuts in public services and public service pay made by Fianna Fáil and Green Party have led to chaos in public administration in this State. This is the result of the Government's slash and burn strategy and its deliberate scuppering of the negotiations with the public service unions last December. Regardless of what may be said about the tactics of some public service unions — the situation at the passport office is uppermost in people's minds today, as it should be — the truth is that those ultimately responsible are sitting on the Government benches, or at least some of them were earlier. Those who must assume some of that responsibility include certain Fianna Fáil backbenchers who staged what can only be described as a sham revolt last December as part of the strategy that led to the collapse of those talks. Where was the backbench revolt when the Government made across the board cuts to social welfare payments? Where were the resignations from the Green Party then? In contrast, Sinn Féin has highlighted the heartlessness of a Government that took €8.50 a week out of the pockets of people who care for elderly and disabled relatives in their homes. We have opposed the plans of a Government that wants to damage our health services fatally by taking a further 1,100 acute hospital beds out of the system in 2010. We have stood against a Government that trumpets its commitment to education but condemns children to learn in prefabricated accommodations and takes support away from those with special needs. This Government has left behind it a trail of destruction of Irish jobs, including those in flagship Irish industry. It has allowed valuable employment to die and skills to be squandered in SR Technics, Aer Lingus, Waterford Glass, the sugar industry and myriad small and medium-sized enterprises the length and breadth of the country. As I have said on several occasions in this Chamber, the lights are going out for the last time almost every evening on once thriving businesses. For Sale and To Let signs on retail and services businesses throughout the State are only accruing dust because there is no access to credit for people with a little gumption, thought and interest to take up the challenge of moving into business. The NAMA intervention has had no impact in this regard. The Government has no strategy to keep young people in Ireland and to use their skills to rebuild the economy. It hopes emigration will hide the true extent of unemployment. The Government's decision to cut youth dole payments was made in order to encourage young people to leave.
I could use all my time condemning the policies of this so-called reshuffled Cabinet, and they richly deserve such condemnation. However, it is just as important to say that there are real alternatives and another way forward. There are many measures the Government could implement to tackle youth unemployment. Given that the Taoiseach spoke in his contribution about tackling the terrible scourge that is encroaching on the lives of families the length and breadth of the State, I propose to outline some of the measures my party has proposed in the hope that those now given responsibility will listen, learn and implement. Sinn Féin presented its solutions last week and we are determined to campaign for their implementation. The young unemployed must be given the opportunity to work and to use their skills and education. Investing in tackling youth unemployment now will pay dividends well into the future. Sinn Féin advocates taking revenue from the National Pensions Reserve Fund on a once-off basis and implementing the revenue-raising proposals set out in our budget 2010 pre-budget submission in order to fund our job creation proposals.
Our proposals include a youth jobs fund to create 20,000 new jobs at a cost of €500 million; an individual plan for the long-term prospects of every person under 25 years who is on the live register; 2,000 places on a "one more language" scheme to give the young unemployed a chance to learn an extra foreign language, at a cost of €20 million; 5,000 free ECDL advanced places at a cost of €25 million; 10,000 new community employment places at a cost of €168 million; 1,000 places on conversion courses at third level to help graduates convert their skills to potential growth sectors, at a cost of €15 million; eight measures to treble the number of under 25s who are self-employed, including a national entrepreneurship programme, access to credit and greater support for high-potential start-ups; the creation of a publicly owned green technology firm and a major drive to attract foreign direct investment in renewable energy, at a cost of €100 million; making Ireland a digital media leader through support for skills, infrastructure and entrepreneurship; a national development scheme to employ people directly on public works projects employing 2,000 workers at a cost of approximately €100 million; and a lifting of the suspension on the early farm retirement scheme in order to make farming an option for younger people.
It is possible to beat youth unemployment with imaginative thinking and a political commitment. However, that has been completely absent from the Government's approach to the jobs crisis. We are most assuredly not going to get such an approach from what we have heard and witnessed today in terms of this so-called reshuffle. At the end of the day, it is nothing more than the same clapped-out Administration. This sham reshuffle comes at a time when there is intense debate on the future of Ireland, with much of that debate being partitionist in nature. Commentators speak of "renewing the republic" or "re-imagining Ireland" but it is an Ireland, in their minds, that stops at Dundalk or Monaghan or Letterkenny and a republic that encompasses only 26 counties. Republicans have a vital and unique contribution to make to the debate by pointing out that for real transformation in Irish politics, the economy and society, national reunification is essential. We reimagine Ireland as it ought to be, an island republic with a place for all who live here, a democracy based on human rights and citizenship, an economy based on shared wealth. For that vision to become a reality, we need a complete political clear-out in this State. Neither of the two conservative parties — Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael — can provide the new politics that we need. This rehashed Cabinet certainly cannot provide it. The first step can be taken quickly, which is to allow the people to make a decision on who should occupy these posts of responsibility.
Deputies
Hear, hear.
Over the course of the past 18 months, the Government has had to lead Ireland through an unprecedented period in our history. It has been no easy task. Everyone in this House knows that the Government has had to contend with the most severe downturn in the nation's recent economic history. The roots and causes of this financial crisis, both domestic and external, have been well documented in this Chamber. We are all conscious that as a result of the most severe global economic circumstances since the 1930s, Ireland, as a small open economy, has been particularly badly affected, losing more than 10% of our national income in two years.
As a Government, we have had to take extremely difficult decisions. Those decisions are necessary to deal effectively with the challenges facing Ireland and put our economy back on a track of sustainable growth. Our approach in tackling the issue has been multi-layered. The Government, under the leadership of the Taoiseach, has done trojan work in helping to stabilise our public finances and making headway in dealing with the crisis in our banks. That has taken energy, leadership and a willingness to put the necessary tough choices above the fascination that the parties opposite have with opinion polls.
As a result of the difficult choices the Government has made, Ireland is on the right path to recovery, but we still have a journey to go and there are difficult steps ahead. We must build on the progress that has been made and not become complacent. The changes the Taoiseach has announced today are about bringing fresh impetus to tackling the huge challenges we face as well as ensuring that every available apparatus of government is working efficiently towards getting Ireland back to prosperity. In framing our plan to see us through this period, we have been conscious of the many positives going for us in this State. These include our low debt to GDP ratio going into this period, which was critical; our pro-business and pro-employment tax regime; our business regulation that recognises the need for control and certainty without overburdening enterprise; and our continuing commitment to investment in infrastructure, education and, critically, research and development.
Above all the other positives we have, however, stand our people and, in particular, our young, highly educated workforce. Ireland has one of the youngest workforces in Europe, with 36% under 25 years of age. Among OECD countries, Ireland's 25 to 34 year olds have an above average level of educational qualification, with 40% of this group having third level education. Six out of every ten students in Ireland graduate with a degree in engineering, science or business, and a significant number are proficient in more than one language. This will confer economic advantages on Ireland in the decades ahead. Our young people are key to our future economic success. Equipping them with the skills necessary for the Irish economy of tomorrow is a pivotal element in developing Ireland as the innovation island.
Our commitment to education, training and skills as the engine of that progression is firm. Now is the time to take a further step-up in our provision of education and training, ensuring that it is world class in its outcomes. We must move away from the traditional approach of teacher-led instruction and the memorising of information towards a greater emphasis on critical thinking. We need to ensure that our students acquire the key skill sets that enable them to be flexible and independent learners throughout their lives.
The Government is committed to the prioritisation of education and training at all levels to the greatest extent possible. The House is well aware of the funding and resources I have put in place in the past 22 months for training and activation. The close aligning of that training and activation work with the further education and training activities of the VECs, the institutes of technology and programmes such as Youthreach provides an opportunity for the streamlining and strengthening of education and training provision. I look forward to the challenge ahead in this area.
For me and for this Government, the changes the Taoiseach has announced today are not about politics as usual. They are about our children's future. This is about generating the right environment for education, for enterprise and for employment to flourish, so we can renew prosperity. There is not a day to lose and every decision has to be weighed up with this imperative in mind.
Tá a fhios agam go soiléir an dúshlán mór atá romham sa Roinn úr seo. Tá mé ag dréim go mór le comhoibriú leis na pairtnéirí ar fad i gcursaí oideachais agus oiliúna, ar mhaithe le leas an phobail agus na tíre. Cuirim béim mhór ar spiorad fiontraíochta a chruthú i gcláracha oideachais agus oiliúna ag gach aon leibhéal. Ar nós na Teachtaí eile a labhair go dtí seo, ba mhaith liom mo chomhghairdeas a ghabháil do mo chomhghleacaithe a fuair onóir mar Airí agus mar Airí Stáit. Tá a fhios agam go rinneadar sár-obair nuair a bhíodar ina n-Airí Stáit. Go pearsanta, ba mhaith liom comhghairdeas a ghabháil dóibh.
I would first like to congratulate those who have been promoted. In particular, I would like to single out Deputy Pat Carey, a colleague of mine on the north side of Dublin, whom I know will bring great energy to his new tasks.
Pouring old rhetoric into new skins will only produce hot air, and that is what we have heard from many Government spokespersons today. There have been many high flowing words and phrases like innovation, activation, knowledge economy, young people being the key to our success and so on. However, this will not make it happen, which is the tragedy of this Government. I recognise the Taoiseach is bringing in some green hedging to trim around his garden with these extra Ministers of State, but that will not conceal the rotting plantation that is inside.
The Tánaiste has just said that our young people are the key to the future. In the past two years, 80% of those who have lost their jobs have been under the age of 30. These are the people in whose future we should be investing. We should be looking to create the infrastructures that give them a future, such as a decent electricity system, a decent broadband system and a genuine knowledge economy. However, during this Government's tenure, export shares have collapsed because it pumped up the property bubble. Our competitiveness has collapsed by 35%. The National Competitiveness Council has stated that all policy in ICT is in the red zone, 75% of the competitiveness indicators are either amber or red and 80% of the indicators for the knowledge economy are in the red zone. We slump and fail in science and maths, but we have no policies to correct that. The Taoiseach thinks that adding "innovation" or "knowledge" to the name of a Department will change things, but it will not.
The Government has had stewardship of all these activities, but it has allowed them to decay. That is not a comfortable truth, but it is the truth all the same. It went to the electorate in 2007 looking for a mandate to continue the dream. The Taoiseach, then as Minister for Finance, stated that the property bubble was built on sound economic fundamentals. He said that the property bubble could go on and that the Government could build spending commitments on the back of it, which he did. Even after the crisis hit us——
Fine Gael wanted to abolish stamp duty.
——the Government continued to spend. I remember the Taoiseach saying that the Government was adopting an inspired strategy, because it could expand spending as the recession hit. He increased spending in the following budget at three or four times the prospective growth in the economy that never materialised. He and his Government built up many of the problems that we now confront.
Many people are now quoting Rahm Emmanuel, who said that a time of crisis provides an opportunity to do great things. This is true, but unfortunately the Taoiseach and his Ministers simply cannot deliver. Their authority is shot through because they went to the country on the pretence that they were competent in managing the economy. They were not competent in managing competitiveness or regulation, and this has destroyed so many jobs and the lives of so many families and people in debt. Failed regulation destroyed our country.
Public finances were mismanaged and the Government ignored warnings. People who issued warnings were told to commit suicide. That is what the Government has bequeathed and its members are prisoners of a failed past. That is why we need a general election. Let us put their belief that they can transform this economy to the test with the people. Let us have a Government, whatever its shade or shape, that at least has the authority to confront the problems we face. These problems are deep and really difficult to address, but they will not be addressed by trying to nurse along the failed loans of the past and starving new businesses of credit. That is the Government's current banking policy. Its public finance policy is about slashing investment. It has taken out €8 billion from its investment programme. How can we build an infrastructure with decent electricity networks and decent broadband systems on the back of slashing investment? It has slammed down the shutters on young people getting into the public service, but it has consistently refused to reform the big political bureaucracy that it has created.
The Government's public service reform has produced what could well be described as a three humped camel: the Department of Finance, the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment all hope to resolve public service reform. I hope that the Minister of State, Deputy Dara Calleary, acting as the mahout for this camel, can deliver some change, but I have little confidence in this because the Taoiseach stated two years ago that public service reform was his priority. We are now half way through this Administration, but public service reform has languished. Not only did the Government destroy it with its past decisions on benchmarking, decentralisation and the creation of a HSE without stripping out the management structures, but it is now destroying it again. The Taoiseach brought people in last Christmas and was going to sign a contract that contained no reform, but a few changes that were to be delivered. He tried to pretend that this would cut the cost of running the public service on the back of a ten day holiday that would be postponed. He was willing to sign up to this, but it was only his Minister for Finance who pointed out that this would not deliver the savings we need. He has not led us to a public service reform agenda, and the new negotiations are timid attempts at reform.
I welcome 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. working days and other kinds of flexibility, and I welcome a movement of staff, but if we are to reform the public service, we must do much more radical things than that. We must devolve power and make people accountable. We must see people sacked for failing, but we never see these things. The Government has not created that sort of devolved accountability. When things go wrong, nobody is ever called to account. That is a failure of the Taoiseach's own leadership to change and drive reform. I would like to see an office of public service reform doing significant things. For example, there is huge potential to cut out routine processes that are scattered across umpteen different Departments and agencies, and consolidate them in shared service centres where one could get genuine economies of scale. I would like to see such an agenda on the table now for discussion at these renewed talks. Let us discuss genuinely how we are going to change the face of the public service, so that good people will not be trapped in a system that fails them because performance is not encouraged, rewarded or prized. More than any before it, this Government has shown that performance is not worth prizing, given the Taoiseach's attitude to benchmarking and decentralisation. The Taoiseach finds it extremely difficult to provide leadership because of his past, but at least he should be putting such matters on the agenda. We should have a radical reform programme that can deliver the savings he is talking about.
We thought we would see that last year when McCarthy was put to work to produce €5 billion in cuts. In addition, huge restructuring was proposed. I would have gone further with some of it, but some people had quibbles with it. It was published in the paper of record that each Department had to come up with those cuts or their equivalent, but nothing happened. There was no public service reform and no restructuring. The clock was ticking towards the 11th hour and the Government cut public service pay. It was a command and control approach, rather than one of reform.
The same is true of the Government's pretences towards an employment strategy. Only last year, it published the Smart Economy document but where was the achievement in that? Where were the deadlines and milestones whereby one could look back over 15 months later to see what had been delivered and what changes had been made? No one drove that. Instead, after about nine or ten months, another committee was established to review it and come up with another strategy. The new strategy will probably suffer the same fate, languishing while we wait for something to happen. If the Government says the knowledge economy is the direction to take, then people must be made responsible for it. Timelines must be published so that we can see if they are being met. Then the Government will be responsible for change in some of these areas, but it has always slunk away from making hard commitments. It persists with an approach to budgeting which is absolutely Dickensian. It is ridiculous to pretend that we can spend €55 million without asking any Minister to commit to any target before we commit the money. I would begin to recognise that change was occurring if I could see some of those elements being altered under the Taoiseach's watch.
I call the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney.
On a point of order, has the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's office had notice of a resignation by the former Deputy Martin Cullen?
It does not arise in this debate.
He said he sent a pre-dated letter operative today.
It does not arise in the course of this debate, but the matter can be checked.
Did he withdraw it?
Is the Taoiseach aware if he has changed his mind?
He has not changed his mind.
I call the Minister, Deputy Harney.
It is a privilege to stand here today and be nominated by the Taoiseach to serve in his Government. It will be the eighth time that I have been asked to serve in a Government since 1997. It is a privilege that I do not take lightly. It is one that I take seriously and I apply all my energy to the task in hand. I will deal in a moment with some of the issues that have been mentioned concerning health. First, however, at the time of the last general election in 2007, both the Fine Gael and Labour parties, like the Government parties, based their economic policies on the fact that Ireland would grow by between 4.5% and 5% during the upcoming period. There was no difference between either side on that matter. So it is wrong for Deputy Kenny to say that independent economic advice was not listened to. The fact is that the main parties in this House based their election manifestoes on a growth rate of that order.
In everything it is doing today, and has done over the past two years, the Government is seeking to return this country to economic growth. In many places both here and abroad, the Government is being saluted for the difficult and courageous decisions we are taking. We have stabilised the public finances and have substantially reduced the gap between our revenue base and spending, which has not been easy. We are seeking to fix the banks and make them fit for purpose so that they can begin lending again and provide working capital to business. None of this could or would be done by simply taking a populist approach, as is being suggested.
In the run up to the budget, both Opposition parties said they broadly agreed with the €4 billion of adjustments, but they opposed every single adjustment that was made. The current recession is very different from what we experienced 20 years ago. Today we have nearly 1 million more people at work. We are more innovative and better educated, while our industrial base is much more diversified. Twenty years ago, almost 30% of the economy was dependent on agriculture. Our markets are also more diversified now and we are less dependent on our neighbouring market in the UK. Geography is no longer the determinant of where Irish companies trade. Therefore, it is blatantly wrong for anyone to suggest that the situation we are in today — difficult and challenging as it is for all of us — is unprecedented. The hard task for Government is not to be deflected; it is to persist and bring clarity. In particular, the change in Departments and the machinery of Government, while not important in itself, has to happen in order to meet our strategic goals. Clearly they must change given the economic circumstances the country is confronting.
The Taoiseach has been referred to as cautious and I would say that is his character. He is not a soundbite person, although we hear a lot of soundbites from others. He is a person of substance. There are things that people might do if they wanted to be popular and take a short-term view. However, there are other, more difficult things that people do when they want to put the country first. History is always a good judge of people who put the country first, particularly in difficult economic circumstances.
I am happy to defend my record and that of the Government on health. The policies I pursue are not my personal ones, rather are the policies endorsed by the Government. Our health system has improved enormously in recent years. Twenty years ago, the then Minister for Health, Barry Desmond, spoke about the shroud passing over the Opposition. His successors today in the Labour Party seem to be suffering from the same illusion. The cancer control plan, which was all about delivering better, safer cancer services for patients, was opposed by both Opposition parties.
The Minister's own junior Minister, Deputy Jimmy Devins, opposed it. The Minister should face reality.
Deputy Kenny himself marched——
Deputy Devins opposed it.
Please allow the Minister to speak.
Deputy Kenny himself marched in his own home town in opposition to that policy.
As did the Minister of State in Sligo, with his candidate beside him.
Deputy Kenny is a man who aspires to be Taoiseach, leading the Government and the country. In his speech he referred to the need for courage and clarity, so I am entitled to make these points. The Labour Party said the cancer control plan could not be implemented because we did not have millions of euro to invest in it. Professor Tom Keane showed that by redirecting resources, not by additionality to any great extent, one can deliver change.
In 2007, this House introduced legislation to provide for something as simple as a lay majority in charge of the medical profession, but that too was opposed by the Opposition. Even the doctors, who were worried about a lay majority, have told me in recent times that it was one of the best decisions made because of the quality of the lay majority on the Medical Council.
The Fair Deal providing equity of care for older people, whether in private residential care or public nursing homes, was equally opposed. I could go on forever about this, but the reality is that we will not change the health service unless we make difficult and unpopular decisions. Is somebody trying to suggest that 20 years ago in Ireland there were no misdiagnoses, no unread X-rays and no unopened letters? Even in the best health systems in the world, radiological errors amount to about 2%, as Deputy Reilly will acknowledge. The fact is that we are discovering these things today and we are doing something about it. That is the difference between the situation in which we find ourselves today and where we were a number of years ago.
At least the letters were opened then.
It is not about the past; it is about the future. It is about having an agenda. The words "reform" and "change" have been debased in this House. It is about improving services for patients bit by bit, day by day. What is the agenda now? It is to provide a risk equalisation scheme, for example, that encompasses solidarity between younger and older people and sicker and healthier people. To be fair, the Labour Party has been supportive of that. It is about defining in law what people are entitled to and eligible for in our health services.
It is about maintaining the two-tier system. That is the problem.
I will deal with that in a moment.
Please allow the Minister to speak.
It is about licensing and accrediting health facilities, which we have never done in this country but for which legislation is currently being prepared. It is about providing an information regime to allow information to be used to improve services to patients. This is the agenda for the next two years as far as health is concerned.
With regard to the issue raised by Deputy Gilmore, we do need a new rehabilitation hospital, but there is now a strong view that not all rehabilitation should happen in the capital and that there should be a decentralised approach. It would not make sense for me, on behalf of taxpayers, to invest resources in a strategy——
Where is the rehabilitation centre——
Please, Deputy Burton.
——that is no longer accepted, including by the people at the National Rehabilitation Hospital.
We will put it on the long finger again.
The problem with the Opposition is that it has a magic-wand approach to health. Fine Gael favours compulsory private health insurance. It talks about it as fair care.
Yes.
However, it has not been sufficiently fair with the public to tell them how much it would cost. Deputy Kenny's policy document says that the Netherlands spends more than Ireland on health. Yet in his speech to the Fine Gael national conference last week he said the reverse. Which is it? If we want to have fair care, as the Deputy calls it——
What I said was that health care in the Netherlands costs less per capita than in Ireland.
——let us find out the cost of that policy. The Labour Party favours compulsory social insurance. However, there is no magic wand in health. The issue is not about how to raise the money.
The Minister is no fairy godmother.
Please, Deputy Reilly.
I agree with that.
The Deputy will have his opportunity.
The issue is about how to allocate the resources, however they are raised — whether through taxation or compulsory insurance or a combination of both. Contrary to the view of the Opposition——
We have a two-tier system.
——the best health systems in the world do not favour a fee-per-item approach, which is seen as out-of-date and too costly, with too much emphasis on unnecessary diagnostics. That is a fact.
The Minister is maintaining a two-tier system which is unfair.
I have suggested to the Joint Committee on Health and Children that it might consider the operation of Kaiser Permanente or the Veterans Health Administration in the United States. Other health care systems are also moving away from that model. I say this with sincerity.
We have established a group, led by Professor Ruane and with many experts from Ireland and overseas, which will report next month on the most appropriate way of allocating resources in health. We should have a genuine debate on this issue and stop pretending there is an infinite pot of money——
Nobody is pretending that.
——and no matter what patient turns up or where, the money will be always there to look after the patient.
Nobody is pretending that.
Lastly, I will speak about the issue of a two-tier system. We have negotiated a new contract with consultants, which took four years. I was criticised about the length of time it took, but the reason was that we needed to obtain more access for public patients to our consultant manpower. That is at the heart of the new contract. There is a one-for-all list for diagnostics and for outpatients based on medical need. We could not consider the new contract as a blank slate; we had to negotiate within the parameters of the existing contract. The new contract was welcomed by both parties in Opposition and is now taking root. That, I inform Deputy Rabbitte, is the only way we will end what he broadly calls the two-tier system. Everybody has universal access to hospitals in this country; the issue is whether they can obtain access based on medical need, unlike some on private health insurance and others. It is only by changing the contract that we can achieve this.
The Minister is well over time.
We talk about saving money. I spent last summer arguing with Deputy Reilly about taking on costs in the pharmacy sector, which will save us €250 million this year. This Deputy, who is the leader of the Opposition as far as health is concerned, opposed me all the way as I tried to obtain better value for taxpayers' money. There is no point in pretending——
I pointed out that the Minister could have saved more money.
——that we should take tough decisions, only to oppose them one by one when they are taken.
Deputies
Hear, hear.
Well done.
I wish to share time with my colleague Deputy Varadkar. We will debunk some of the rewriting of history that the Minister has just done before the House.
First I must comment on the Taoiseach himself — through the Chair, of course. He is not leading but rather loitering with intent. His intent is to continue on as he has done for the past two and a half years, presiding over a worsening economic mess, a health service that is in meltdown, and an education system that is taking special needs assistants away from children, thus preventing them from exploiting their full potential, and increasing class sizes. I will not go into the other ministries. I see before me a person who will now be in charge of education but who does not know the difference between Darwin and Einstein, and I wonder where we are going.
The Taoiseach's name begins with "C", and there are three words beginning with "C" which could describe today's reshuffle. I leave it to Members to decide: is what the Taoiseach has done courageous, cautious or cowardly? Where is the public service reform? Nowhere. Bankers screw up, regulators fall asleep at the wheel, public servants preside over large amounts of waste — as in FÁS and elsewhere — and they all get a big golden handshake to go on with, while the taxpayer pays the bill. That is the idea of public service reform here.
I refer to the Minister in whom the Taoiseach has so much faith that he has re-appointed her in the same position. I met the family of Daniel McAnaspie outside the House; I do not know whether the Minister met them. This is a young man who was in HSE care and who has been missing for four weeks. The Garda believes, I am told by his family, that he may have come to some serious harm, but nobody in the HSE has gone to the trouble of looking for him or checking areas in which his body might be found — although I hope it has not gone that far. He is among many who have gone missing and died in HSE care. There are other issues with child care, including the lack of proper in-patient facilities for those with psychiatric problems. We do not even have an inspectorate for adults or children with disabilities who are in care.
The Minister talked about her reforms and mentioned cancer services. However, after two years of much talk about reform of cancer services, what she has achieved is an improvement in only one area — that of breast cancer services. Even so, there is no service north of a line between Galway and Dublin, although there are several such locations in Dublin. The wonderful reform does not bear up to examination.
Letterkenny is north of that line.
In addition, it has come to my notice from several surgeons that patients known to have cancer of the bowel, oesophagus or lung are being pushed down the list to accommodate people who might have breast cancer. Such is the political drive for reform in this area and to ensure the statistics stack up.
Let us consider the Minister's great reforms. One of these was supposed to be co-located hospitals, but there is no sign of a block laid or a sod turned. What about the new psychiatric unit at St. Ita's Hospital, in which the proposal for a new co-located hospital has impinged on the existing unit? Mental health has been put to the back of the queue again. In St. Ita's hospital, 23 women and 23 men are in two separate wards in beds two to three feet apart, with one block of three toilets, a shower and a bathroom. That is what they have to endure under the Minister's reforms. Is she happy about this?
Is the Minister happy with the 70% increase in delayed discharges among people who are lying in hospital beds but receiving no service, sometimes ending up in long-term care? Is she happy with the fact that a maximum of 500 people and an average of 300 people were on trolleys in hospitals this January? Is she happy with the 20,000 cancelled operations last year? Behind each of those cancelled operations was a patient who was suffering and in pain. That is not shroud-waving; it is reality. People are experiencing real pain.
The Deputy has one minute left.
I am sorry I have only one minute left because there is so much more about which to talk, including the hospitals in Portlaoise, Limerick, Galway, the north east and Tallaght. There is a common thread with regard to the problems that occurred in the north east, Portlaoise and Tallaght: the system knew there were problems but would not act until it was good and ready. In December, when the Minister found out what had happened at Tallaght hospital, why did she not put together a working group with representatives of the Department of Health and Children, HIQA, the HSE and Tallaght hospital? Why did she not make sure the hospital had the resources to e-mail those X-rays out around Ireland and the UK if necessary in order that they could be dealt with?
The Deputy knows that technically that cannot happen.
Where was the Minister when all this went on? This is the key point, lest those across the House miss it. There are times in life, even as a doctor, when one cannot do much, but one shows concern and tries to be there for the patient. There are times, when people are in difficulties, that their relatives and friends turn up and show concern even if they cannot do much about it. The Minister showed her concern by staying on the far side of the world on her terribly important 16-day trip.
I ask the Taoiseach to stop taking decisions that are only tough for the poor, the vulnerable and the sick. He should take a decision that is tough on himself — to go to the country and get a mandate from the people, because he still does not have one.
I have the same one John Bruton had.
I congratulate the new Ministers, Deputies Carey and Killeen, and the new Government Whip, Deputy Curran, on their appointments. I share a border with Deputies Carey and Curran and I have much respect for their work on the ground. I congratulate the Tánaiste on her appointment as Minister responsible for education and I sincerely hope she gets on as well with Deputy Brian Hayes as she did with me.
The Deputy would not wish that on her.
This country does not need a new Cabinet but it needs a new Government with a five-year term, a clear and safe majority and a mandate to govern. The Minister for Health and Children is right in that no party put forward a manifesto at the last election reflecting our current position. Neither the Government nor the Opposition has a mandate to do what needs to be done. The Minister gave a very good reason for a new election and Government with a real mandate. A new Government will allow for renewal, give people the catharsis they need and allow for a fresh start. That is why we need a new Government rather than a new Cabinet.
It has been said that on Planet Bertie there were jobs for the boys but it is clear that on Planet Gormley, there are jobs for the Greens. The Green Party campaigned in 2007 by saying that Green politics are clean politics but it is clear that Green politics equate to crony politics. Five of the six Green Party Deputies have held ministerial office and when one of the Senators did not get a job in Europe, she went off in a huff. Several of the party's defeated candidates have been appointed to State boards without any scrutiny whatever and it seems the only person who is not fit for ministerial office is Deputy Paul Gogarty. We do not know the reason for that.
He is arguably the most suited to high office.
He must have rolled over.
The restructuring of the Cabinet is a botched job. It is the worst reshuffle since Garrett FitzGerald's botched reshuffle of 1986. FÁS, which is the most troubled agency in this country and needs a Minister to fix it, is divided among three Departments — the Department responsible for social protection, the Department responsible for education and skills and the Department responsible for enterprise, trade and innovation. There will be no oversight and we know each of the Ministers will pass the buck to each other. There will be a corporate governance nightmare. If the Taoiseach is not going to break up the agency——
The Deputy should consider the Labour Services Act.
That Act does not cover it. If the agency is not broken up, there will be a problem. The Taoiseach's announcement today is contradictory to the Labour Services Act in that case.
It is not.
The Taoiseach should split the agency or I do not see how one Minister could be in charge of it in its entirety. It will be a real mess and a big mistake.
That would be a kind of change.
I am shocked that during the worst jobs and unemployment crisis in a generation, there will no longer be a Department responsible for employment, jobs or labour.
Where did the Deputy pick that up?
It would seem the labour portfolio will remain in enterprise, trade and innovation, although this was not mentioned in the Taoiseach's statement. Employment has been downgraded and there is to be no Department with employment, jobs or labour in the title.
This is slapstick stuff.
It is the most important issue facing the country and there is a Minister for everything else but not employment. It is an extraordinary decision. The employment functions should have been taken from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment — dealing with the people who are on benefits and of a working age — and put in a new Department of employment, work and skills, or work and benefits. The Taoiseach should have done as they did in the UK.
The issue of the public sector is another botched job. Deputy Dara Calleary will be Minister of State with responsibility for labour affairs, which will be a big job considering the state the country is in. He will have to co-ordinate across two other Department — a total of three Departments — to deal with public sector reform. There will also be a Cabinet committee and a public sector board and quango.
There will be no quango.
The Taoiseach does not even understand what public sector reform is about if he thinks that sort of nonsensical triangular arrangement will be successful.
There is another strange Department that will be responsible for community, equality and the Gaeltacht. It will also be responsible for disabilities and the integration of immigrants. It should be called what it is, which is a Department of the miscellaneous. Anything that could not be housed elsewhere has been shoved into this one and there will be a Minister for the miscellaneous.
This is an appalling botch job. The Taoiseach is no Seán Lemass, Jack Lynch or John Bruton.
The Deputy is no John Kennedy.
He is a Garrett FitzGerald. He has trebled the national debt and effectively destroyed the country.
The Deputy is the Dan Quayle of Fine Gael.
He has brought us a wasteful botched job of a Cabinet reshuffle. It is the last thing he will do so he should enjoy writing boring articles in The Irish Times in a few years.
Did the Taoiseach mix up the two Marys?
I wish to share time with the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Mary Hanafin.
I congratulate the new Ministers, Deputies Killeen and Carey, and the new Ministers of State. I wish the former Ministers, Deputies Willie O'Dea and Martin Cullen, well. They were good colleagues at the Cabinet table for many years. I also wish Deputy Sargent well.
Unfortunately he had to depart.
The primary goal of the partnership Government is recovery, working for Irish people and harnessing the positive values, abilities and determination of ordinary men and women. That means working towards jobs which are sustainable and making our society inclusive and socially just. The Government reshuffle is about renewal and today is about refocusing and reaffirming our absolute determination to get through this economic crisis.
As we meet today there are more than 430,000 of our friends, neighbours and family members on the dole, and that is what we should be talking about today.
Correct.
They deserve the concrete, costed and realistic policies that we have not seen from the far side of the House.
The Government takes on none of the proposals from over here. It will not do it.
The Deputy should allow the Minister to continue.
That is why this Government's economic strategy is based on the goal of creating and sustaining jobs.
The Minister is taunting us.
The recently launched IDA strategy has a target to create 100,000 jobs by 2014.
The net number of new jobs will be zero.
A stimulus package that we have despite the economic downturn will bring about €40 billion in investment over the next six years in infrastructure. I have returned from France, where I spent St. Patrick's Day, and it was amazing to hear French business people marvel at the fact that despite the economic downturn, we were able to be one of the highest if not the highest spenders on infrastructure. Many of the people representing companies who I met hoped to gain some business in Ireland and bring investment here.
Will the Minister tell us their names?
They will operate on the basis of the excellent infrastructure we have put in place.
What companies?
We have dealt with excise duties on alcohol and lowered VAT to assist hotels and the catering and retail sectors. We introduced a scrappage scheme which even the Opposition will accept has had a dramatic effect on the number of cars bought since the start of the year.
God almighty.
There are plenty of jobs in Hamburg.
We have invested €600 million in research and development and science and technology. From my experience in Paris last week, it seems the improved tax incentives in research and development and intellectual property in the Finance Bill have helped. One business person suggested that we replicate in Ireland what they have in France in that respect but we were able to say that in December's budget we had introduced a similar measure to the French model of tax incentives for research and development.
We have also committed to retaining the 12.5% corporation tax and we have put in place a credit review system to ensure a flow of credit from banks to support healthy Irish businesses and jobs. We will continue to put downward pressure on energy costs. We have also put in place €56 million for additional short-term training places, €20 million for an activation fund targeting low-skilled workers and €14 million for a European globalisation adjustment fund.
There is no recession at all.
The remarks made by Deputy Kenny on education do not behove him. For once I agree with Deputy Ó Caoláin in that respect. Deputy Kenny went off his script and wrongly suggested that education was being downgraded but it is not.
I said the Tánaiste was being downgraded.
It is certainly not being downgraded, particularly as we have put in a massive investment in education over the past number of years.
The Government has taken away the special needs assistants for children who are blind and disabled.
Please, Deputy Kenny.
I will leave the matter on this point.
That is meant to be progress.
Garrett FitzGerald, Alan Dukes and John Bruton cannot be wrong on the tough decisions taken by this Government.
That is a good one.
The Government is taking away special needs assistants. The Minister should not lecture us.
I know Deputy Rabbitte is the court jester but the fact is——
Those assistants are being taken away from people who have various problems and who are intellectually challenged. It ill behoves the Minister to lecture us on this matter.
The Minister should be allowed to conclude.
——they are not examining this from an independent point of view. They state that the Government has taken the correct decisions and has received no co-operation — apart from that offered in respect of the referendum on the Lisbon treaty — with regard to the decisions it has taken.
The Minister should be ashamed of himself. He sat at the Cabinet table and agreed with the decision that was taken in this regard.
Fine Gael and the Labour Party should be truthful about the way the economic situation has been dealt with in the past number of years.
The Minister should be ashamed of himself.
What about the——
Those opposite should have given their support to the tough decisions we have taken. We will continue to take such decisions in the future.
The Government took away special needs assistants from blind children. The Minister should be ashamed of himself.
Before I call the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Mary Hanafin, I ask other Members to allow colleagues to speak without being shouted down.
The trouble is that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern, believes what he is saying. He lives in cloud cuckoo land.
The Minister for Social and Family Affairs should be allowed to proceed with her contribution, without interruption.
It is no wonder that 400,000 people are unemployed
This is the national Parliament and people are allowed to speak and hold views. They should not be shouted down.
I apologise to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle but that is what those opposite believe.
It is a great privilege, as a female member of the Government, to contribute to this debate. I say that to highlight the fact that since the foundation of the State, and excluding Countess Markievicz who held office in the first Dáil, only 12 women have held ministerial office at Cabinet level. It is a particular honour to be in the presence of the Tánaiste, Deputy Mary Coughlan, and the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, and to be taking on a role——
Two of the female members of Cabinet were demoted today.
——which is of central importance to the country and its economy.
I have had the privilege of serving as a Minister of State and also as Minister for Education and Science and Minister for Social and Family Affairs. I am glad I had the opportunity to develop the national pensions strategy, which constitutes a long-term policy for the protection of the incomes of future generations.
The Minister took money from the disabled.
That was the pensions strategy.
It is easy to focus on financial concerns, the banks, etc. Its financial position may be extremely grim but this country is not poor. Ireland is rich in culture, innovation and creativity.
Let them eat opera.
It is these aspects which are important to Irish citizens. When one asks people what they know about Ireland, they do not refer to the banks or the recession.
They refer to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform's recent visit to Paris.
They refer instead to who we are, what we are and that for which we stand. This reflects the importance of my new portfolio in a governmental context. I look forward to continuing to ensure that our culture, which is central to us as a people, continues to be celebrated, promoted and developed. As has been stated previously, our culture is the rose on the table and it is extremely important to Irish families.
The same can be said of sport. A great deal of emphasis is placed on sport in this country. Perhaps we should spend more time ensuring that our children are fit and healthy——
Who can no longer run around their school yards.
——or focusing on women in sport and what they have achieved. Now that people are living longer, we want them to lead healthy lives and to participate. I recognise the sporting successes that have been achieved at national, county and club level. Regardless of whether one is referring to national sports such as hurling or minority sports such as sailing, there is no doubt that there is major potential for people to participate. Such participation can have an impact on people and their well-being. It can also have an impact on the development of the communities in which they live.
The Taoiseach highlighted the economic aspect of tourism, which is the third part of my portfolio. I am of the view that this aspect can be developed to a much greater degree. Some 200,000 people are employed in the tourism sector, which is worth €5 billion to the economy. We face a challenge in the context of ensuring we develop tourism, which is one of the few indigenous industries in this country.
Yes, and the travel tax will be retained.
We spend a great deal of time attracting major foreign direct investment. The companies involved make a major contribution in the context of creating jobs and contributing to the country's tax revenues.
Along with agriculture, tourism is a natural industry. We can develop it by marketing the country, by offering good value for money——
And by getting rid of the travel tax.
——and by demanding good standards. My new Department is about us, as Irish people. It is about who and what we are, but it is also about developing particular aspects of our economy. I look forward to driving that development.
I wish to share time with Deputy Burton.
Agreed.
I congratulate the new appointees to the Cabinet, Deputies Pat Carey and Tony Killeen, and wish them well. I also congratulate those who have been appointed as Ministers of State. It is a great honour and also a challenge to be granted ministerial responsibility. I wish those who have been given such responsibility well.
The presentation of the new Cabinet arrangements by the Taoiseach did not inspire confidence on my part. It would have been very useful, in making his announcement on the reconfiguration of the Cabinet, if the Taoiseach had indicated at the outset the clear objectives that are to be achieved. The Taoiseach's contribution has been followed by contributions from other members of the Government which are hectoring in tone. Successive Ministers have informed us that they were obliged to take the difficult decisions and that we opposed them. They omitted to indicate that they took those decisions in respect of the wrong policy.
Members of the public are currently asking whether anything has changed to a significant degree and whether, if such change has occurred, whether it will lead to their trusting the political system. In that context, they are going to hone in on the problem of unemployment and ask whether the new arrangements relating to the Cabinet will make it possible to protect or create jobs. They will also inquire whether those arrangements will help to address the needs of the 437,000 people who are unemployed. I welcome the comments of the Minister, Deputy Mary Hanafin, regarding the possibilities that exist in her new area of responsibility. She was the exception among those opposite in that she referred to the area in respect of which she will have responsibility. Other Ministers did not really do that.
The Tánaiste used material from the European Commission's report when she stated that Irish graduates are among the most employable in the western world. Is it not then an incredible tragedy that so many of them are unemployed? So much of the social capital that has been invested in these people will be lost if they are forced to emigrate. Of course, we must hope that there may be opportunities abroad to which they might emigrate.
What is happening is tragic. We must get real and ask the relevant questions. For example, where are the graduate placements across the public service and the semi-State sector that were promised? The answer is that they do not exist. That is a failure. A brave Taoiseach would have stated that the old economic paradigm, including its international dimension, to which the current holder of the office of Taoiseach makes regular reference, is no more. At the recent meeting of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, Professor Patrick Honohan stated that market fundamentalism is gone. There should be an admission of what it is that is dead. The public should be informed as to what is new.
Smart technocratic adjustments involving changing the people who are in charge of the lifeboats as the Titanic sinks will not achieve anything. What is needed is a specification of priorities. I will provide an example in that regard and I do not offer it as some form of intellectual abstraction. I do not have the figures in front of me but I understand that there may be between €18 billion and €20 billion left in the National Pensions Reserve Fund. What is to happen to this money? Is it to be invested in the real economy in order to save it and to create jobs or will it be thrown into the black hole that is called the recapitalisation of some banks that were never of systemic importance?
People are seeking an approach towards the economy that will redefine work, seize upon the benefits that are to be had from the green economy in the context of employment and recognise those who provide social care as workers. In addition, people want the Government to identify the rich opportunities on offer in the cultural economy. It is interesting that the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Hanafin, referred to the fact that the reputation of this country was achieved collectively by the Irish people and that they did not believe in extreme individualism. That reputation was destroyed by those who drew upon a theory of market fundamentalism and who did not care tuppence for solidarity. It is very interesting as we take a new direction that it is precisely those who believed in values of solidarity, community and inclusive citizenships who redefined the new economy. We did not get that nor did the reconfiguration address what might achieve even a beginning of it.
"These unhappy times call for the building of plans that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid." So wrote Roosevelt in the heat and heart of the great depression in the United States. While the United States is, as we know, a can do country with mottos such as "change you can believe in", this sad Cabinet shuffled in today like a gone to seed athlete out of breath and certainly not fit for the sport for all with which the new Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport seemed to threatened us.
On the menu in the Dáil restaurant one can see items marked "OT" for "Operation Transformation". These are meant to provide slimmed down more energetic more vigorous versions of the people who sit on these benches.
Joan Burton "OTT".
All I can say is that "Operation Transformation" this was not. As I was listening I thought I saw a ghost or two flit passed and look down not so fondly at the Taoiseach's head. I thought I might have seen Bertie walking along.
You did see him and he looked like a ghost.
When various transformations in Bertie's life went ahead who did we see coming down the stairs of the Dáil? Was it Mr. McNamara, that late great tzar of Irish building, who was calling the shots for Fianna Fáil on behalf of the developers and their friends in the banks? Did I see Seán Dunne, the person who went to the Queen and sessions in the United States as the key guest of the Irish Government? I saw a mention in the Taoiseach's speech about a public services board to reform the public service. If we rolled back the clock a year or two or three ago I am sure these senior figures in Irish business would have been key people for these boards along with that scion of Irish banking, Mr. FitzPatrick, and his cousin in Irish banking, Mr. Fingleton.
Let us be honest about all of this. We are in the middle of the greatest depression that Ireland has endured or experienced since the economic war. Not even the Second World War produced the levels of unemployment to which the Government and Fianna Fáil have reduced the country. What do we get? It is probably a very simple menu but we have FÁS a h-aon which will go to the Department of Education and Skills to remind the Tánaiste of happier times in her previous Department. FÁS a dó will go to the new Department of Social Protection. FÁS a trí, which might be the head of the organisation, will stay at its old Department. We could put this to music. It is almost like beidh aonach amárach i gContae an Chláir because we will have FÁS a h-aon, FÁS a dó agus FÁS a trí. This is a bit like turning the water into wine; we have a dysfunctional FÁS——
Fiche bliain ag fás.
There is a culture vulture over there.
——and now we have fiche bliain ag fás because we have a bit of FÁS for everybody in the Government.
Tá an Teachta é féin cosúil leis an t-oileánach.
The responsibilities of the Minister of State, Deputy Dara Calleary, have widened. He is to be responsible for relations with the trade unions, undefined responsibilities at the Department of Finance, and responsibilities for public service reform. Had there been guts to the Taoiseach's reform of Government, one of the more redundant Departments, of which there are plenty of candidates but I do not have the time to list them all, could have been transformed into one decent Cabinet portfolio dealing with those issues. Instead the Taoiseach seems to have funked that and what we have is new wine in old bottles except that in this case, the wine has turned to vinegar.
The Titanic Taoiseach.
A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leat as ucht an deis cúpla focal a rá. Ar ndóigh, tá dúshlán——
Is dóigh liom go bhfuil an Aire ag roinnt a chuid ama.
Gabh mo leithscéal. Tá mé ag roinnt mo chuid ama leis an Aire, an Teachta Martin.
Go raibh maith agat. Aontaithe.
Ar ndóigh, tá dúshlán mór ag baint leis an obair mhór atá curtha romham ag an Taoiseach. Sílim go bhfuil sé fíor-thábhachtach go dtabharfaimid faoi cheann de na fadhbanna is mó atá os comhair an phobail i láthair na huaire — ceist na dífhostaíochta.
For many years, I have believed that unemployment is one of the greatest challenges that people face. People often think of unemployment purely in terms of income loss. However, it is also about dignity and confidence; the loss of something challenging to do every day; and the loss of connection with workmates. Unemployment has a huge debilitating effect on individuals, families, communities and our nation. We must always look at better ways of doing more with the resources that are there. This will be a great challenge in the coming months and years.
It makes ultimate sense to look at the activation side of the finance we will provide and the income support side to see whether there are ways to get better synergies in terms of those who wind up in the unfortunate situation of being unemployed and try to create a better future for them in the short term and to upskill them and give them opportunities so they get back into the mainstream workforce as speedily as possible.
My new Department faces huge challenges. It faces challenges in protecting the most vulnerable in our society. It brings a new synergy to looking at job activation in its wider context with income support and will provide a one stop shop for people who face the terrible prospect of being unemployed.
In the wider context, the re-organisation announced by the Taoiseach today focuses on the main challenges that face us. We speak about an innovation economy but for that we must have organised best practice for upskilling people so they can avail of the huge opportunities out there. In the re-organisation we will be able to tackle the issues of work and support for people and communities, and of upskilling, training and education. I look forward to the new challenges I face; I know they will be huge but I have no doubt that with the support of my colleagues we will be able to overcome some of the massive challenges we face at this time.
Ba mhaith liom ar deireadh a rá go raibh sé mar phribhléid agam obair sa Roinn Gnóthaí Pobail, Tuaithe agus Gaeltachta le blianta beaga anuas. Is minic go raibh na meáin ag caitheamh anuas ar thábhacht na Roinne sin. Tá áthas orm go bhfuil an Roinn sin á láidriú agus go mbeidh fear a d'oibrigh liom sa Roinn mar Aire Stáit, an Teachta Pat Carey, ar ais sa Roinn sin anois mar Aire sinseareach. Tá mé cinnte go ndéanfaidh sé obair an-mhaith sa Roinn sin. Go minic, ní thuigeann daoine an tábhacht a bhaineann le pobail na tíre seo. Tá an-áthas orm go bhfuil cúramaí breise chomhionannais curtha le sin, mar tagann an dá rud le chéile. Níl aon amhras orm ach go ndéanfaidh an Teachta Carey obair iontach sa Roinn sin. Guím chuile rath air san obair mhór a bheidh á dhéanamh aige. Nuair a ghlacann sé freagracht le haghaidh cúramaí na Gaeilge agus na Gaeltachta — rud atá an-ghar do chroí an Taoisigh — tá mé cinnte go ndéanfaidh sé an-obair chun an Ghaeltacht a fhorbairt agus chun tabhairt faoi na dúshláin atá roimh ár dteanga náisiúnta. Domsa, is lá fíor-speisialta é an lá seo. Tabharfaidh mé faoi na dúshláin nua atá romham lé fuinneamh agus le díograis. Tá súil agam go mbeidh mé in ann athruithe móra a dhéanamh chun feabhas a chur i rith mo chuid ama mar Aire Cosaint Shóisialta.
Ba mhaith liom comhghairdeas a dhéanamh leis an Aire, an Teachta Ó Cuív, as ucht an post nua atá faighte aige.
Táim cinnte go n-éireoidh an t-ádh leis agus go ndéanfaidh sé jab den chéad scoth ann.
First, I strongly support the changes being made today, particularly the realignment of both responsibilities and Departments' functions. From a policy perspective, today's announcements were of substance. I have listened to many speeches in the House from the Opposition side that have been rather superficial and shallow.
In line with the reshuffle.
They do not reflect the deserved plaudits——
For what?
——that should go with the significant policy reorientation entailed by the Taoiseach's decisions.
The Minister should give an example.
First, while Fianna Fáil-led Governments have been accused of a lot by the Opposition, it must be acknowledged that over the past decade, they have transformed the research landscape in Ireland significantly. This has had an impact on the type of inward investment that is coming in at present——
The Minister should read the research from UCC.
——and on the type of new companies that are being formed via Enterprise Ireland.
The Minister should read the research.
For example, if one compares the activities of multinational companies today to those of five years ago——
The Minister should read the research from UCC.
Please. I did not interrupt Deputy Burton.
Deputy Burton, please.
Multinational companies today have a far greater research content than was the case five years ago. The reforms announced by the Taoiseach today will streamline in particular the fourth level research arm of the State. It will be brought under the aegis of a single Department to be called the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation to ensure a strong synergy between this research commitment, the enterprise economy and the recently-published report by the innovation task force. Given our experiences, I believe this to be a good and solid measure to take. Although the research landscape has been transformed, given the scale of the issue now facing us, we must streamline it as we move forward. Second, I refer to skills and employment. The proposed move of the skills and training section of FÁS to the Department of Education and Skills also is a positive step. It also is clear that the Government transformed and expanded the education sector in the past decade. A variety of programmes are in place, particularly in the post-leaving certificate sector in what now are called colleges of further education. For example, the success in animation exemplified by the film "Avatar" was not a one-day wonder. Colleges of further education, such as Ballyfermot Senior College, Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa, Cork, Cork College of Commerce and others throughout the country have made a distinctive contribution to the economy that has been supported by the Government in the past decade. The marrying of this sector with the FÁS element will reduce an element of competition that was taking place between various State agencies and bodies in the field of skills provision. It will streamline it further and will simplify and enhance it. Its alignment with second level education and with the colleges of further education sector in particular constitutes a good switch.
When one puts together the research and skills area with those of income support, labour activation and preparing people for a return to employment, a single theme emerges, namely, jobs. While one must be clear that the economic crisis being experienced at present is global in nature, new ways are needed to work on one of our most significant challenges, that is, the hundreds of thousands of people who are unemployed. The challenge is to activate people and in particular to transform into work the budgetary allocation in welfare and elsewhere. Deputy Ó Cuív will be taking on this significant challenge and the changes the Taoiseach has made in this regard makes sense.
I believe Deputy Gilmore referred earlier to the Taoiseach's record in respect of employment in the past two years in office. Public finances are key to employment and job creation, as are the banking structure and system. While they are fundamental, the enterprise side comprises the third pillar in this regard. I refer to the innovation task force, the commitment to research, science and development and to Ireland's indigenous enterprises, which still are strong and resilient. Our exports have been more resilient than most in what one could describe as the modern side of the economy. I acknowledge the construction and banking sectors took a massive hit, as did the retail sector as a consequence. However, the life sciences, the ICT sector and the internationally traded services sector still are performing relatively well, despite the enormous collapse globally and the depressed demand for products and services internationally. The Government has been preparing the country to put it on the right path to benefit in the first instance from an economic upturn that undoubtedly will occur towards the latter part of 2010 and to ensure the correct orientation and policy platforms are in place to drive forward the country and place it on the road to recovery.
As for the international perspective on Ireland, I visited the United States for St. Patrick's week and have discussed the matter with other returning Ministers. We have passed the Lisbon treaty and have transformed the international perception of Ireland. Moreover, I note the international perception of the policies the Government has taken differs greatly from domestic perception. The overriding view of the international community is that Ireland has taken the correct policy decisions to take itself out of this economic crisis. This perception is shared across the globe if one talks to economists, media commentators, people in business or in any walk of life. They are somewhat further away and will state that while the measures are extremely painful and are difficult for people in both the public or private sectors, in essence Ireland is taking the correct policy decisions with regard to the public finances, the creation of a vehicle to deal with an unprecedented banking crisis and our focus on an enterprise export-oriented economy. As for the decisions the Taoiseach has taken today, the appointments and promotions are well merited and I believe the significant restructuring will endure in the years to come. Were people not so blinded by their needs to oppose, I believe that privately, many Members on the other side of the House would consider the policies being implemented today to be highly sensible.
I wish to share time with Deputy Hogan.
In an equal divide?
Yes.
I listened to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Martin, refer to speeches made by Members of the Opposition as being superficial and shallow. Deputy Martin was Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment as Ireland slid down the competitive league like a downhill skier. Despite numerous reports, the Minister did nothing as we slipped down that chain. Consequently, the Minister is as culpable as anyone else for the difficulties in which we found ourselves as our exports tumbled and our competitiveness stumbled. The Minister held the reins during that period and while the finger of blame has not pointed at him yet, it will do so in time to come. Certainly, when historians examine this period, he will be blamed.
The Deputy may be surprised.
The Minister did not read the brief.
The Minister was lucky.
Reading briefs was not one of the Minister's strengths.
The Minister was lucky.
Deputies, please.
He got out in time.
On a personal level, I congratulate Deputies Pat Carey, Killeen, Curran, Connick, White and Cuffe. Members certainly will miss Deputy Dooley hectoring and heckling in the Chamber, as he is more likely to be seen around Spancil Hill hereafter than on the Fianna Fáil backbenches, as he tries to save his political hide. As Minister for Finance after the last general election, the Taoiseach was not terribly happy that the Green Party was joining the Government.
I negotiated a programme of Government with the Green Party.
He did so under stress and duress. The chickens certainly are coming home to roost today, as has the ethos of the Green Party, in so far as it has been articulated by its Members. The fault I see in the Green Party Members is that they pretended to be different from others when they were no different from most. There is a certain resonance between the difficulties in which the Labour Party in England finds itself today and the manner in which the Green Party has come full circle. It is all about jobs for the boys in the Green Party. Deputy Gogarty is the black sheep of the family. I do not know how he will be fitted in over the next couple of years and do not know the reason he has been singled out.
Rolling along.
In his contribution, the Taoiseach mentioned his belief that the worst is over. This reiterates the line taken by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, during his budget speech. However, I cannot see any tangible evidence that the worst is over. The Taoiseach also stated that the Department of Social and Family Affairs will be renamed to become the Department of Social Protection. I made an appeal some weeks ago about a person who has encountered a social welfare difficulty and received a response to the effect that due to industrial action, the office in question was not dealing with queries from elected representatives until further notice. Is this the Department of Social Protection to which the Taoiseach refers? I am disappointed the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Martin, has left the Chamber because I wish to mention the queues extending along Molesworth Street. Although people have an explicit right to travel under the Constitution and under the European Convention on Human Rights, they cannot get a passport. This difficulty did not arise yesterday or last Friday. It has been escalating for the past couple of months. As the Taoiseach and I know, every March, April and May are the peak months during which people seek to have their passports processed.
There is room to manoeuvre under the Passports Act 2008. The Minister could examine the concept of extending the valid period of passports. In section 15 of the Act, reference is made to the issuing of emergency travel documentation. I ask the Taoiseach to have the Minister for Foreign Affairs examine the concept of issuing emergency travel documentation, as it can be done. It just needs political will, but the Government has adopted an approach to the public sector's go-slow of masquerading around as if nothing has occurred. Essential services are being denied to the public, but the issue on Molesworth Street is only the tip of the iceberg. I ask the Taoiseach to do something about the matter, since it will not go away unless the Government acts. However, the Government has stood idly by while the problem escalated.
It has been mentioned that people will miss holidays, but we are also discussing tourism and business, every aspect of life which has been affected. It is not just a matter of someone hoping to visit the Costa del Sol for a week, a football team or young person going on a holiday or a student exchange. It is also about business transactions, commerce and tourism.
The Taoiseach mentioned reinvigoration and a fresh focus. This certainly is not a reinvigoration and it certainly will not provide a fresh focus. I have listened to the Taoiseach's statements in recent months on how the Government has been penalised in the opinion polls because it took the difficult decisions, but the Government is being penalised because it failed to take the difficult decisions.
I sincerely congratulate Deputies Pat Carey and Killeen, people who are well fit to be in the Government, and their families on this great occasion of their elevation to the Cabinet. I also congratulate my constituency colleague, Deputy White of the Green Party, and Deputy Connick, who lives in County Kilkenny but represents County Wexford and to whom we refer as the sixth Deputy from Carlow-Kilkenny, on their elevation to the rank of Ministers of State. They deserve a role in whatever is left of the Government's term of office.
The Taoiseach and I know that he carried out a little reshuffle to keep the show on the road for another while. The mention of reconfiguration was nothing more than spin. There will be no proper changes in Departments, only tinkering around the edges. The Taoiseach's conservative and safe approach won out again in this so-called Cabinet reshuffle. It is business as usual, in that the same people will be in charge of the country for the purpose of deciding policy for the next while.
This is my opportunity to ask about the main talking point. Why did the Taoiseach cave into the Green Party again and give it a second Minister of State? Fianna Fáil's backbenchers, not one of whom is to be seen, are seething with anger about this. The political imperative was survival.
Is Deputy Hogan an expert on Fianna Fáil?
Where are Deputies O'Flynn and McGuinness?
The Government parties will survive for as long as they can. Politically, they must hang together or else they will hang separately. Today's reshuffle is about politics, not the reconfiguration of Departments or the nonsense we heard from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Micheál Martin, on innovation and research. Those constitute parts of existing Departments and it is for those budgets to perform.
I wish to discuss the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. He is a clever politician if he was able to extract another Minister of State from the Taoiseach. There were 20 Ministers of State at the time of the former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, and there are 15 now. The Minister had a willing horse in the present Taoiseach, who wants to ensure that the Government will survive for as long as possible by tying in the Green Party. However, the Taoiseach did not need to do so because the Green Party is well tied into the Government. That party is prepared to take any punishment it is given on banking, employment, health policy or so on.
The Minister talks a lot about various matters and makes many public statements, but he does not walk the walk. Where is he concerning the accountability required in the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, DDDA? He does not want to investigate its corporate governance issues and decisions made by boards of directors and others that have exposed the taxpayer to a significant degree. We have heard nothing from him in this respect. He is bogged down in a legal quagmire with the Attorney General's office or other legal people. We will wait the shortest possible time to determine whether he is walking the walk or just talking the talk in respect of this issue. Has he made any decisions since becoming a Minister that will expose the taxpayer further, given how previous decisions exposed the taxpayer significantly?
He is trying to stop Fine Gael from rezoning half of Dublin. Did it learn nothing from the property bubble?
We will all reach the same conclusion reached by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources concerning political accountability.
Fine Gael would have a shopping centre on every street corner if it could.
The Minister should not address Deputy Hogan.
Archbishop Ryan is at it again, a Cheann Comhairle.
Rezoning everything.
Will the Ceann Comhairle protect me?
I will.
Thank you.
Nothing has been learned.
The Green Party is doing well in north County Mayo.
We will find out if a decision of the Minister, Deputy Gormley, has exposed the taxpayer further in respect of decisions of the DDDA. Through the Chair, we will see whether there is any political accountability.
Fine Gael would have rezoned it all right up the mountains. There would have been shopping centres all over the place——
I ask Members to refrain from making comments across the floor of the Chamber.
——as if nothing had occurred in the past five years.
Could remarks be addressed through the Chair, please? Otherwise, the debate will break down.
We will see the record of accountability. We will also see who has been joking about waste management.
Fine Gael would not leave even a blade of grass.
The Minister should allow Deputy Hogan to speak.
We know what the Green Party thinks of grass.
Deputy Hogan should address his remarks through the Chair.
Regarding political accountability, what is the Minister doing about waste management and water policies and local government reform? He promised a White Paper on the latter at the end of 2008. He has achieved nothing in reforming politics generally, but he has discussed it often.
This is just spin. The Taoiseach's reconfiguration is about staying in office, political survival and nothing else.
May I share time with the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary?
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I do not want to get into a slagging match with Deputy Hogan.
Start one anyway.
The Minister started, so he might as well finish.
Keep going.
Sometimes, one starts playing politics as if political gameplaying is important, but the people outside the Houses realise it is not. They realise that much of what has transpired during the past two months in the Houses——
God almighty.
Missionary zeal.
——has been a real distraction from what we should be doing. Maybe it was a natural thing for the House to hold its breath for the past year, but most of us realised that the country was in real difficulties in terms of funding, the Lisbon treaty and the budget.
We did not see much of the Minister during the Lisbon treaty debate.
At the end of last year, we realised that we had achieved much in a range of those issues through politics and good governance. We had got the country out of a funding difficulty.
Tell that to small businesses.
Our country was in a much better position in Europe and our budgetary position was clear. These were incredible achievements for one year, given the scale of the challenges we faced. Perhaps it was natural that, after exhaling at the end of all of that, the political system went into a chaotic month or two. We need to get away from any concentration on the internal politics in the Dáil. Instead, we can all agree that we need to focus on getting the country working again. We need to use our time to discuss how best to do this rather than getting into cheap slagging matches about different parties——
About grass in south County Dublin.
Tell us how it is done.
——as if any one political party in its parliamentary party meetings does not have all of the flaws or characteristics——
Surely the Minister is flawless. He can levitate.
Deputies, please.
When a team of human beings comes together to arrange their affairs, there are all sorts of story and drama.
Frogs. Stags. Hounds. Renewables. Green energy.
The drama is not important.
The Minister is beginning to sound like a recovering alcoholic lecturing the rest of us.
Rather, getting the policies right is important. We should be examining different banking solutions.
The Minister is in the Government.
I do not agree with the Fine Gael default position as a way out. It would cost us more. One reason I am in the Government is because I believe the position it is taking, as supported and directed by the Green Party,——
If that is what the Minister wants, he should sort out his NAMA problem.
——is the better one.
Did the Minister say "directed by the Green Party"? That is news to us.
May we have the Minister without interruption?
I agree with the budgetary position. I try to reconcile the different positions taken by Fine Gael, which would cut public spending, and the Labour Party, which would not touch public spending.
What of Fianna Fáil and the Green Party?
We can have a good debate on trying to reconcile this massive contradiction because it is worthy of consideration, as is——
Support Deputy O'Dea and do not support Deputy O'Dea.
The country is going down the tube and the Minister wants to debate the difference between Fine Gael and Labour. This is unreal.
——the ability to question what we are doing.
The Minister should send out his Twitter.
He is like an old-fashioned Redemptorist.
The crucial development concerns the stimulus in the economy. I have real confidence in our ability. We will stimulate the economy when we have laid the foundations with a solid banking system, which is an essential prerequisite, and a clear budget position.
In ten years time.
I have every confidence in the people and business people to help us get out of our economic difficulties. The Government approach of greening the economy is the right one. We are developing a smart grid which will be the right investment for the future. We are investing in education, having recognised that some of the cutbacks had to be reversed.
The Government took away special needs assistants and took money from the blind and disabled.
We made those changes because we recognised that to get a higher value economy we are going to have to have intelligent people.
I thought it was because Deputy Paul Gogarty rolled on the ground.
It is crucial that this is what we focus on and the Government has the ability to do that. The Government has the people who can deliver that.
I have known Deputy Ciarán Cuffe, I hate to say, for about 35 years. Regardless of the task he is given, he will stand up to the challenge.
What jobs will he create?
He is a creative, capable and innovative politician who will deliver for the Irish people in whatever office he takes.
What about jobs?
I have seen Deputy Mary White at close quarters in difficult times.
Who will be Minister for passports?
I have seen her ability and courage. I have seen her creativity, which is what we Greens bring to Parliament. She will show her skills and capabilities in whatever challenge she is given as part of this change in Government positions.
She is damned with faint praise. What about the jobs stimulus?
I worked with Deputy Pat Carey for five years on Dublin City Council.
Wasting time.
He is someone one could sit down and work with in the public interest. His expertise and skills in community development as a former Minister of State and as Chief Whip make him perfectly placed to add to this Government and to strengthen it.
The man is a saint. Everyone knows that.
I worked with Deputy Tony Killeen when he was Minister of State in my Department. He is also someone one can work with and reason with. Deputy Burton may make snide remarks.
I was complimenting the Minister, Deputy Pat Carey.
What is the nature and quality of the people who are being asked to take up the challenge? They are highly capable, skilled and motivated.
In the Green Party, for all the Fine Gael jibes and cheap shots and for all the flaws we, like other parties, have, one thing is increasingly clear.
They are terrified to go to the country. They have no courage.
We also have real strength and determination to provide good Government for the people of the country, which will get us out of difficulties. This is what we are doing and will continue to do for as long as possible because I believe it is the right thing for the country.
I join with colleagues in wishing Deputies Pat Carey, Tony Killeen and John Curran well in their new portfolios and I congratulate my colleagues, Deputies Seán Connick, Mary Alexandra White and Ciarán Cuffe on their new appointments. I look forward to working with them. I thank the Taoiseach for assigning me extra responsibilities and I look forward to working with him and the Minister for Finance on the transformation of the public service, which is one of the key challenges facing the Government in the coming months and years. We can have a public service that will make a highly significant contribution to sustainable economic recovery and renewal.
We need a public service that is better integrated to meet the needs of citizens, that is fit for purpose and affordable. We must renew our focus on what is achieved and how we can improve outcomes across the public service, while simultaneously focusing on reducing the cost of doing business, not just for Government but for citizens interacting. Doing more for less is not just an economic imperative, it presents us with the opportunity to reconfigure how public services are delivered and to re-engineer processes across the Government system, in agreement with those who work in it.
Our policy priorities in economic and social policy areas are clearly set out in the revised programme for Government and in other key policy frameworks published in the last 12 months. No one doubts what needs to be achieved and the critical task now is to drive the implementation of those policies.
The ongoing pressure on resources means that progress is essential and urgent. The citizen must be at the centre of everything the public service does. We want to remove barriers between different branches of the public service and different organisations to make sure there is clarity of purpose, a stronger leadership and better co-operation. We need a more joined-up Government to respond to the joined-up needs of our people as they live their lives and look after their families. The emphasis must be on the citizen.
We want to see an ongoing expansion in the services available on-line to the individual and particularly to businesses. We have to apply new technology, some of which has been developed within the public service, to boost productivity and improve customer service. We also need to share information more widely across the system and in the process reduce the burden placed on citizens and businesses. To achieve our objectives here it will be necessary to make strategic investments in innovative technologies and to acquire specialist skills which may not be currently available.
There must be a major reshaping of how we manage our public service. We have to re-engineer the way we do business so that the various components of our services are delivered in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible. One important opportunity to do this is through developing shared services which achieve economies of scale and the opportunity to innovate and streamline procedures, which will be a particular focus of mine in the coming weeks. There are many examples of how this approach to managing standardised procedures could generate very substantial savings, without compromising standards. In particular, I look forward to working closely with the Minister of State, Deputy Martin Mansergh on public procurement reform, especially with small and medium sized enterprises.
The key element in the public service are the people. The greatest asset of our public service are those who work in it every day delivering diverse and varied services to each citizen. They have a commitment which I want to harness and a knowledge and professionalism which I want to use to reshape our public services, in agreement with them, to ensure they are efficient, effective and focused on our people.
Progress has been made on the reform agenda in recent times. We must now dramatically accelerate that reform. Current discussions between the public service management and unions are being facilitated by Mr. Kevin Duffy and Mr. Kieran Mulvey. All parties must engage in this process in good faith. This is the appropriate forum for all of us to direct our energies and opinions at the current time.
It is clear to me that there is a shared view on the sort of changes across the public service that would produce greater efficiency and better services for the public and more satisfactory working conditions for public servants. We now need to reach a realistic and fair agreement so that we can move on with the priorities of transformation.
The public interest and the long-term interest of public servants coincide with those of the Government and our citizens in creating a public service of which we can be proud and, equally, a public service which we can afford. There is much hard work and challenges ahead but I look forward to working with public servants right across the system and with stakeholders in the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Finance.
I would like to share my time with Deputy Brian Hayes.
Is that agreed? Agreed. Each Deputy will have three minutes. I will call the Minister for Finance at five minutes past six.
A Cheann Comhairle, you did allow Government speakers to go over time and that has eaten into Opposition time, which is wrong.
I assure you, Deputy, there were sinners on both sides.
The old case, a Cheann Comhairle, sinners on both sides.
I am disappointed that the Taoiseach did not appoint my constituency colleague, Deputy Dara Calleary, to the Cabinet. He is capable of it. In County Mayo, we are used to having senior Ministers. It will not be long before we have a Taoiseach and a senior Minister.
Deputy Ring's leader is not commenting.
Deputy John O'Mahony has not come up that quickly.
He will have to win the All Ireland before he has even a chance.
What is wrong with Deputy Paul Gogarty? The Green Party remind me of Gay Byrne on "The Late Late Show" giving "one for everyone in the audience". They have all had a chance except Deputy Gogarty. He speaks very good language and would be capable of being a Minister. I am disappointed he has not been promoted and I merely want to make a case for him.
The other person I am sorry for is Deputy Mattie McGrath. He is the only person on the Government benches who speaks common sense. I thought he could be added to the Cabinet and would strengthen the Government but they would not appoint him.
I am delighted Deputy Pat Carey has joined the Cabinet. He is a decent man and I know he will do well. I hope things go well for him. I have always found him to he honourable and decent as Chief Whip and as a Minister of State. His appointment is a great honour and I wish him success in it. However, I hope he will not be there for too long. I also wish Deputy Tony Killeen well.
The Taoiseach had an opportunity to reshuffle the Cabinet and he did not do so. I am reminded of the Titanic. He merely moved the ship nearer to the water. It is about to sink. There was no reshuffle today. I hope the media have not been taken in and will tell us we had a reshuffle. We did not. All that happened was that two Ministers retired and were replaced by two backbenchers. The Taoiseach had plenty of talent on the backbenches but he did not take the opportunity presented to reshuffle the Cabinet. The country needs new leadership, a new Government and new thinking.
The Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, spoke about the public service. The point at issue is not related to the provision of passports, about which everybody is talking. A woman, who is in receipt of social welfare benefit, told me this morning that she had spent €28 of her €30 phone credit trying to get through to the Longford office regarding her family income supplement benefit. She could not get through to that office.
Hear, hear.
People cannot get through to their local offices regarding their jobseeker's allowance. Will the Taoiseach and the Government do something about the public service because people are suffering? We are not suffering in here but the people are suffering. The Government has created this mess and it must get us out of it because what is happening is not right. The current position suits the Government because it is not letting us make it accountable. It is not replying to parliamentary questions. We cannot deal with the issues that need to be addressed because we do not have the required information. I want this dispute resolved in whatever way it can be resolved. The Taoiseach had a chance today to do something about the Government, to give it a new image and to bring in new ideas for the country, but he failed. Instead of the three by-elections that are due to be held, we want an election in the 43 constituencies; we need a general election and we need it now. The people of the country should not be giving out about those in government, it should get it out. That is what we want to do.
Hear, hear.
Whenever I hear the Minister, Deputy Ryan, speak, I feel a huge sense of personal inadequacy, as if my life has been nothing in comparison to his.
For the first time ever.
I am disappointed he has left or levitated out of the Chamber. We have a new definition of green jobs, given that the only people to get the leg up in terms of this reshuffle are the two green backbenchers. It is quite extraordinary. I congratulate the Tánaiste on her nomination as the new Minister for Education and Skills. I understand Deputy Varadkar said that he would look forward to our interventions across the floor of the House. I can assure the Tánaiste I am a pussycat by comparison to Deputy Varadkar.
I also congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Carey, on his nomination to the new post. I also congratulate the Minister, Deputy O'Keeffe, the effective Marc Antony of this Administration in that he has the ear of Caesar, on his nomination as the new Minister for Enterprise and Employment.
On the question of education, the Taoiseach has hived off the fourth level research section from the Department of Education and Science to the new Department of Enterprise and Employment without also including third level education with it. That is dysfunctional. We, effectively, have a new Department of Education and Skills, which will also have some funding for FÁS in terms of retraining, which is a good thing but the problem is that the Department is too big. It is effectively a Department of schools. It does not have any interest in further education, training opportunities or even higher level education. This Department, which is already too big is to become bigger under the reshuffle. There is a disconnect between what the Taoiseach wants to do in terms of research, laudable as it is, and not having attached to it the third level sector. The third level sector will still come under the Department of Education and Skills while the fourth level sector, research, will come under the new Department. Where is the connectivity in policy in that regard, which the Taoiseach is trying to achieve? I know he is trying to achieve more commercialisation of the research budget, which is now significant, but I do not believe he will succeed.
The Departments of enterprise, education and social welfare will now have a foot, as it were, on FÁS. This is bizarre. FÁS will no longer be answerable to one Minister in one Department but, effectively, will be answerable to three Ministers in three Departments. That will not solve the problems we face at a policy level within any of those Departments.
On the day Deputy Cowen became Taoiseach he highlighted the issue of public service reform as the number one concern. He said that by September he would have his plans for that reform, but he did not achieve that benchmark. The notion that public service reform can be achieved by moving a few Ministers around a few Departments without changing the way in which the public service deals with the public is total anathema. There is no sense of a radical idea of public service reform in this reshuffle, limited as it is.
This is a good day for those Ministers who have been given an opportunity to serve in high office, and I congratulate them, but this country needs a new start. It will not get a new start from the same group of people who have led this country into the mire during the past 13 years in government. The public see through that, as does everyone else, and that is why there will be no great change as a result of this reshuffle.
I congratulate the new officeholders. They will make a valuable contribution to the Government and I wish them well. I look forward to working with them. We all know that the task of being a Minister in the current circumstances is a difficult one. It is one that is necessary and essential and it has to be performed in the national and public interest, and that is what has to come first.
The House was divided earlier this afternoon by the intervention of the Labour Party on the allocation of time for this discussion. It was suggested that there was insufficient time to debate the appointment of the Ministers. While some useful contributions were made from the benches opposite, having listened to some of the contributions, there was a sufficient allocation of time for this debate. The parties opposite have complained that we have been too long in government, but the big problem with them is that they have been far too long in Opposition. When one examines the contributions that are being made, many speakers opposite are stuck in a groove, the same old groove——
By jove, Minister, there are a fair few on the opposite side who have been stuck in a groove for too long as well.
——where they cannot see beyond their comfort zone where Fianna Fáil is always the bogeyman and they are always the good guys.
It has joined up with the Green Party. Green power is okay.
In this particular insular political world, they are entirely untouched by the growing international confidence in this country. The contrast between the views expressed by some speakers opposite and the regular, consistent and persistent commentary made overseas about this country could not be starker.
I begin with the President of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet. He stated a few weeks ago that in the case of Ireland, very very tough decisions had been made by the Government, and rightly so. His colleague on the governing council of the European Central Bank, José Manuel González-Páramo, said: "The Irish measures are very courageous. They are going in the right direction." The French Finance Minister, Christine Lagarde, commended the determination of the Irish people in their response to the crisis. She said that Ireland has set the high standard that the rest of us must follow. Then we have the views of the German Minister for European Affairs——
Who in Ireland has a good thing to say about the Government?
——whose party in the Federal Republic is in coalition with Deputy Durkan's party in Europe. He said: "I think there is a deeply rooted trust and confidence in this country's ability to sort out its problems ... There is a fundamental belief that the Irish are going to solve it ..." They are political views; they are not manufactured views. These are reactions to visible decisions made by an Irish Government and these are the responses around the world to these decisions. Commentators from these countries have been equally impressed by the decisions of the Government. Take the view, for example, of the Citi chief economist Willem Buiter, who said Ireland's intelligently designed approach to restoring fiscal stability is a model of how to do things. Martin Wolf, the chief economics editor of the Financial Times said last month, that he admired very much what the Irish policy makers have done. He said they really do seem to understand the implications of being in a monetary union.
He must have been a late convert.
He said we are the only country in this position that does. He said the Irish policy makers have dealt with this issue more seriously and more reasonably than any other euro member.
What has that got to do with Deputy Mary White?
Many of these commentators and Ministers are in countries that have faced exactly the same challenges we have faced but have encountered far greater difficulties——
No, ours are worse.
We have €77 billion of——
——in the implementation of policies and in the resolution of their difficulties.
Deputy Gilmore spoke earlier about the will of the people and the mandate of the people. The people gave a mandate on 24 May 2007 to this Parliament, Dáil Éireann, to elect a Government. That is the mandate we are implementing.
That is what they are worried about now.
That is the mandate we have.
That is why they are worried now. That is why they are queuing outside the Passport Office.
Deputy Durkan, please allow the Minister to continue.
The people are perfectly free to comment on the exercise of that mandate at the expiration of the appropriate constitutional terms. That is the position. We live in a representative democracy. The leader of the Labour Party suggested today that we do not, that we should have a Government by opinion poll, that mandates expire on the basis of opinion polls and that the will of the people is that this Government should leave office. The will of the people was expressed in May 2007 and the Fine Gael Party and the Labour Party were incapable of devising a cohesive programme to persuade the people on that occasion to give my party a break after two terms in office.
Of what is the Minister afraid?
There is a major onus on the Opposition parties to give people a valid alternative. On the basis of this afternoon's debate, there is little sign of one being offered.
It will come.
We have in place a plan which will put the country on the path to economic growth.
Where is it?
Unemployment will not be as high as previously forecast, consumer confidence is reviving, export figures are the healthiest in Europe and we are regaining our competitiveness.
Speakers on the opposite side suggest the Government should resign and appeal to the people but where is the alternative Government? The Fine Gael Party supported public sector pay cuts; the Labour Party rejects them. The Labour Party wants an extra €2.3 billion in annual taxation; the Fine Gael Party argues one cannot tax oneself to a recovery. Fine Gael sought selective cuts in unemployment payments; the Labour Party rejects all welfare reductions.
The Minister should talk about the new Ministers.
Let us be clear, the Fine Gael Party supports a bank guarantee and rejects nationalisation, while the Labour Party rejects a bank guarantee and supports nationalisation.
The Fianna Fáil Party has bought off the Green Party again.
Absolutely.
Please allow the Minister to continue without interruption.
Irish people are being invited to believe that an immediate general election is in their best interests and will bring these parties to Government without any programme as to how the country can advance.
I heard Deputy Burton describe the current economic problems as the most serious since the 1920s and 1930s.
The Minister is in possession.
I remind Deputy Burton that this country had very severe economic problems in the 1950s and 1980s, one of the major root causes of which was the inability of the Fine Gael Party and Labour Party to agree on a coherent economic policy platform.
It was the inability of the Fianna Fáil Party to——
Remember 1977.
We should also remember 1997.
Irish people face the same historic danger if the Opposition does not get its act together and start offering them an intellectually coherent alternative to a policy which this Government has put forward to international acclaim.
Buy them off. Bribe them. The Minister should tell us about the Government.
The task facing Government in the months ahead, which I accept is onerous for a Government that has held office for as long as we have, is to translate this international confidence into confidence at home.
We have 434,000 people on the dole.
We have to believe in ourselves as a people and ignore the contradictory guff coming from the other parties in this House. We have to face up to the fact that what others are saying about us is right.
What did Paul Krugman and Simon Johnson say about Ireland?
One American socialist does not make a summer.
Professor Johnson is the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, while Professor Krugman is a Nobel Prize winner.
We know the credentials of the economists in question.
The Minister is highly selective. He should tell us what Professors Krugman and Johnson said. Let us have some honesty.
The Minister is in possession. Allow him to continue without interruption, please.
Last weekend, Deputy Kenny hosted a party conference——
It was a massive success.
——at which the Fine Gael Party made clear that, having argued last April that we needed a €3.5 billion correction for 2011, it now advocates a €2 billion adjustment, all of which is to be made on current spending. Again, details of how and where cuts will be made were not given.
Who wrote this stuff for the Minister?
What is most worrying about what Fine Gael is now proposing is that the party is reneging on our commitments under the Stability and Growth Pact. It is pursuing a Greek option, the course pursued in Greece until recently.
That is absolute rubbish.
First it was——
I am speaking about the Fine Gael Party, not the Labour Party.
The Minister can bail them out again if he wishes.
Allow the Minister to continue without interruption, please.
Let us be clear. We have regained the confidence of international markets and investors. The outside world knows we can deal with our difficulties. We will rebuild domestic confidence and the confidence to invest and create jobs and renew the economy.
Where is the wall of cash promised for small investors?
All of this can and will be done by the coherent team the Taoiseach has put together this afternoon. We will continue to serve the Irish people for the duration of our mandate.
Where is the wall of cash promised for small investors?
As it is now 6.15 p.m. I am required to put the following question in accordance with a resolution of the Dáil of this day: "That Dáil Éireann approves the nominations by the Taoiseach for appointment by the Presidential Commission to be members of the Government."
Tá
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