The Opposition today condemned the Government’s economic stewardship and its programme of cutbacks during a special Dáil debate on the economy and the national development plan today.
Responding to a speech by the Taoiseach, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny declared that the Irish people no longer believed “the false statements of assurance from a discredited leader and a discredited Government”.
“People no longer believe you because your every action and utterance on the economy has further diminished your credibility as a leader, and the credibility of a Government, that can steer Ireland away from the deep recession now staring us in the face.
Mr Kenny continued: “People no longer trust you because you were the finance minister who used every opportunity to tell Irish families and investors back in 2005 and 2006 that Irish house prices were based on ‘strong economic fundamentals’.
“If the rest of the world economy is catching a cold, then the Irish economy under your stewardship has contracted pneumonia.”
He accused the Taoiseach of squandering the fruits of the Celtic Tiger amid “a long-standing Government culture of cynical ‘soft option’ politics and a refusal to take hard decisions and implement real reforms”.
Addressing the Dáil, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said the country needed an economic plan but instead got “a half-baked, book-keeping exercise”. The country needs a recovery package and instead got was a package of cuts, he added.
He said that the Government proposals would not create any jobs in the private sector and would simply cut jobs and services in the public sector.
“This is not the forward -looking strategic approach that will restore confidence in the economy, reignite growth, or lay down the basis for future employment that the country needs. . . . It is a crude and conservative knee-jerk reaction”.
“Rather than show decisive action to restore confidence to the economy, we have a Taoiseach and his finance minister who are muddled and confused. The package they produced yesterday was long-on tough talk, and short on specifics,” Mr Gilmore claimed.
