Rabbitte dismissive of all-party initiative

FORMER LABOUR leader Pat Rabbitte has appeared to rule out any prospect of his party supporting the Government’s four-year budgetary plan.

Mr Rabbitte told the Dáil yesterday that the same Fianna Fáil Ministers, who inherited an economy in 1997 in pristine condition, were now reduced to pleading for bipartisan support to keep the International Monetary Fund from the door.

“To hell with phoney consensus. We need a fresh start,” said Mr Rabbitte. “We need a new government with a mandate, not some behind-closed doors formula for paralysis.”

Speaking during the resumed debate on the bank guarantee, Mr Rabbitte said that 20 years from now historians and economists would still be attempting to measure the scale of the dereliction of duty on the part of Fianna Fáil-led governments. “A generation of our people will pay the price. It is not clear if our economic sovereignty will survive the consequences,” he said. “Now the talk is of consensus and shared analysis and mock humility.”

Mr Rabbitte said that in no other country in the world would the same politicians be still in charge. “There can be no recovery until they are gone,” he added.

In 1997, he said, “Fianna Fáil and their PD allies” had inherited an economy in surplus. “A dozen years later, the economy is bust and our society is broken,” he added.

Fine Gael’s Deirdre Clune said the stark problem in December’s budget would be how the State could bridge the €20 billion gap between income and expenditure.

“It is a challenge for all parties,” she added. “Fine Gael will not be found wanting in contributing to that debate. We welcome the letter from the Taoiseach yesterday and that from the leader of the Green Party, Deputy John Gormley.”

Ms Clune said full financial information would have to be provided to all parties. Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, she added, had earlier said that departmental expenditure would not be available until budget day.

“Unless the Government knows what it has to spend, how can the Oppostiion propose options?” she asked.

“The questions that have been raised seriously concern me and others on this side of the House. We need full information.” The Government’s banking policy had failed, said Ms Clune.

“We are facing a scenario in which our ratio of debt to GDP will peak at 32 per cent this year,” she added. “This is unheard of and has consequences for every man, woman and child in the country.”

Sinn Féin’s Aengus Ó Snodaigh said it was vital to differentiate between senior management and ground-level staff in the banking sector.

People were angry with the banks, he said.

“They are angry at the seemingly untouchable fat cats, the Seán FitzPatricks, the Michael Fingletons and so on,” he added.

“They are right to be. But some people are directing their anger at the more accessible ground-level staff in banks. They are wrong to do so.”

Minister of State for Health Áine Brady said that although the economic situation was serious, it could and would be managed. “Difficult though it has been, we have had to take steps to ensure that we continue to have a functioning banking system with banks soundly capitalised and providing normal banking services such as safeguarding deposits and prudently lending money to real people in the real economy.”

Ms Brady said that “whatever the past sins of our banks, and they are many, it is an inescapable fact that they have a fundamental role to play as we move into the future”.

Efforts must now be dedicated to restoring sustainability to the public finances and achieving a general deficit of below 3 per cent by 2014, she added.