Statements on Economic Policy - 9th July 2008

Statements on Economic Policy - 9th July 2008
Senator David Norris: I am glad to have an opportunity to contribute to this debate.
Although there has been a change of ministers, Deputy Mansergh has occupied senior positions
of administration before entering parliamentary life and as such he is well equipped to deal
with any modest suggestions that may come from either side of the House.
I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, will agree that there is no avoiding the
fact that the situation is serious and that it came upon us with remarkable rapidity. I am one
of a number of people who believed this would happen. However, I was relying only on instinct
as unlike my colleague, Senator Ross, I do not have expertise in this area. The problems that
have arisen in respect of the construction industry are not entirely Irish; there are global factors
involved, including the situation in regard to subprime lending in America. All of these problems
are related to the neo-liberal economic policies and to the incarnation of greed as something
good as represented by what I call the Leeson syndrome, namely, people, removed from
the reality of ordinary people, speculating in the abstract on futures in the stock market.
I take an ideological slant on the matter with which I am sure not everybody will agree.
However, we all recognise the situation exists. Two questions come to mind. How long will this
economic downturn last? While it will end Government can bring it to a closure much more
rapidly than might otherwise happen. Also, how badly damaged will be the most vulnerable
elements in our society during that period? These are the people who most need to be protected
in this situation. I refer in particular to people dependant on social welfare, people in receipt
of health care and so on.
I agree there has been a collapse in the construction industry. However, that does not break
my heart. No group deserved it more. The arrogance with which the building and construction
industry treated people was unparalleled. I am sure the Minister of State will recall the stories
echoed in this House about people being gazumped by builders who tried to squeeze more
money out of them and did not honour their contracts. Everybody is aware of the attitude of
individual builders to ordinary people trying to secure their services. They treated people with
contempt. The regression was inevitable and necessary and my heart is not breaking over it. I
heard Members on this side of the House state some people in the construction industry were
earning \400 per week. I wish I had known who they were because I would have employed
every last one of them. One of the bellyaches was that these people were being undercut by
the Polish people. The Polish people work hard and turn up on time for work. They did not
go off to South Africa on safari or to their villas in Spain halfway through contracts as builders
here did. This is in some ways a salutary correction. However, I am concerned about those
caught in the mortgage market. Everybody had money shoved at them. It was unconscionable.
I do not have a mortgage or debts with the bank, thank God, but I remember the last time I
had and it was very unpleasant. However, in recent years I was in receipt of correspondence
from every bank in town. Letters poured in offering me \20,000 or \30,000. They could not
get rid of money quickly enough. We must bear in mind the arrogance of the banks and the
fact that they speculated in America. They also did so here many years ago and the taxpayer
had to bail them out. They should be put on notice that they will not be allowed to savage the
ordinary people who are being crucified by debts.
Senator MacSharry said that we should front-load the positive proposals because otherwise
they would not be implemented. I have a few such proposals. They may be very naive but I
would like to present them to the Minister. I whispered one or two of them into the ear of the
Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, and also complimented him on taking this Godawful
job at what was the worst time in political life to be catapulted into it. However, when I
expressed my sympathy to him, he brushed it aside and said he was thoroughly enjoying the
experience. Good for him. He was absolutely right to tell the conference in Dublin Castle that
the building boom was coming to a shuddering halt. Why should he be criticised for this? A
little more truth from members of the Government would be welcome. We can stand the truth
and should hear it. The Minister also performed very well on “The Week in Politics” against
a formidable opponent, Deputy Bruton, who would make a superb Minister for Finance.
Senator Terry Leyden: Really. Perhaps in the next century.
Senator David Norris: We have about six months. If things continue to slide, they will become
really serious. At that point people will start talking about a Government of national unity
because there is damn all difference between the two principal conservative parties, Fine Gael
and Fianna Fa´ il. We might then have Deputy Bruton as Minister for Finance.
Senator Liam Twomey: We will be frightened then.
Senator David Norris: I will return to my suggestions. There are people of extraordinary
talent who have benefited the country through their financial wisdom or artistic brilliance,
including U2 and others.
Deputy Martin Mansergh: People such as the Senator.
Senator David Norris: Enormous amounts of money have been taken offshore. People have
every right to do this and we cannot punish them for it. Tony O’Reilly has plenty of money
somewhere around the place. Can we not lure them back? In the old days there were tax
incentive schemes, but we now have public programmes that are under-capitalised. Why not
say to the people concerned that now they have got away with it and have their swag offshore,
we will let them bring it back without taxing them on the profits? They would be doing the
work for which we do not have sufficient capital.
I ask the Minister of State to recommend to the Government that it carry out a business
efficiency audit in every Department. This would be useful, for example, for An Post which
owns a warehouse around the corner from me on which rent of \108,000 per year is paid. It is
empty. The only time it ever had anything in it was when one of the employees moved house,
at which time it contained sofas, chairs, tables, fridges and cookers. We ought not to have such
waste. We cannot afford that flab. I also ask the Minister of State to ensure the capital programmes
are kept as intact as possible. This is important. The Government should not lose its
nerve. For goodness’ sake, it should not yet again let the Frank McDonalds of this world
win and cancel the metro project. It is important that we give a commitment to carrying out
this project.
I am glad the Government has decided not to go ahead with the wage increases for all of us
here in Leinster House, although I love such increases. I am as greedy as anyone else and my
snout has been in the trough, as was said here. I will accept that cliche´ . I snuffled up whatever
I could. It is painful that we are not to receive our 1%, but the decision was the right one and
I will tell the House why. When I was running the Hirschfeld Centre, I made it my practice
not to ask anybody to do something I would not do. I worked on the door, behind the cash
register and cleaned the drains manually when they became clogged. That meant that I could
ask any other person in the organisation to do these things because I would not ask them to
do anything I would not do myself. The financial implications of cancelling our wage increase
are not worth a tuppenny damn, except psychologically. If we did not endure the pain, we
would not be in a position to ask anybody else to do so.