Here we have gone from boom to bust, as Mr. Keenan is aware. We previously had a level of unemployment as low as that of Australia, at 3% or 4%, with labour shortages despite immigration, but that is all changing now. Our economy was too closed and we depended too much on the construction industry. In the final year of the boom we built 90,000 houses, while in the UK 150,000 houses were built for a population of 60 million. We were not vigilant enough and did not watch what was going on. There was an influx of foreign institutions which created more competition for our native banking sector. Many here may not agree with what I am going to say, but that competition brought about massive lending. There was lending on demand; one did not have to give one's CV. Now, many of those institutions are leaving our island and moving on, and the courts are full of cases.
Australia is on the Pacific Rim and is thus major competition for Ireland as an agricultural country. It has very different weather to ours. The WTO is also an issue for our farmers, as anybody around this table with an interest in agriculture will know, because we have nearly returned to an agriculture-based economy. Any further liberalisation by the WTO will have a devastating effect on Irish agriculture. We compete with New Zealand, which is a neighbouring country of Australia. The North Island of New Zealand is the biggest dairy producer in the world, producing about four times more milk than we do. The New Zealand price for milk is about 13 cent, while ours is 20 cent, which is lower than the cost of production in an Irish context. Thus, there are quite a lot of problems for this country.
I am going into all the data and almost making a Second Stage speech. A total of 40% of our exports go to the UK, and the weakness of sterling means our exports are very expensive there while imports from the UK are cheaper. Forty percent is a large proportion of our exports, so we depend on the British market. These are the problems we face as an economy.
The figures simply do not add up for us. It is costing €60 billion to run our economy and we have a tax take of €34 billion. We pay €20 billion to the public service and spend €22 billion on social welfare. Thus, two thirds of what we get in is going the wrong direction, if one could put it that way. We are into deficit budgeting. We will be borrowing €25 billion or €30 billion this year and we cannot continue at this rate because we are part of the eurozone.
The Lisbon treaty is also on the agenda. This is vital for us because we have been good Europeans since 1973 and we are committed to the EU. We have benefited much from the EU, receiving funding of about €80 billion, which is a huge amount of money. Germany provides most of the EU budget, so it is annoyed with us over the Lisbon treaty. Thus, there are quite a few things on the agenda which go across party lines and have all-party support. That is a flavour of what is going on here at present. Australia is very far away but we envy it at times for a number of reasons. I welcome Mr. Keenan and wish him well for the few days he spends here. I have no doubt he will enjoy the hospitality of an Irish lunch later on.
