'We revelled in it . . . and no one shouted stop'

EVERYONE HAS to take responsibility for the economic crisis the State is now in, according to the Minister for Energy and Natural Resources.

Eamon Ryan said “we bought bigger cars for the status that it gave. We built bigger houses regardless of the thought as to how we’re going to heat these massive properties.

“We flew to New York in a way that turned Madison Avenue into our latest Grafton Street. We revelled in it. Let us be honest about it,” he said during the debate on the economy. It was a case of “build as much as possible, lend as much as you can and on all sides of this House no one shouted stop.”

Fine Gael energy spokesman Simon Coveney said his party had been shouting stop for the past three years.

Mr Ryan said that in the last decade China and India “started to produce our goods for us at a fraction of the cost. That brought down inflation in the developed world and allowed the central banks to lower interests internationally, which led to easy lending, bad lending.”

That phenomenon was based on cheap energy “but that cheap energy is no longer available”.

Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works Dr Martin Mansergh said the OPW would make savings of €75 million or 11 per cent of its capital budget. They include: €35 million from the €82.5 million allocated for the purchase of sites and buildings; €25 million from capital projects including Leinster House; and €15 million from flood relief works.

Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey said the tender process for the Metro North project would go ahead “as will the project if it is in the budgetary limits we set”.

He told the Dáil the bulk of the €20 million savings from his department would come from the “non-core” capital budget.

Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea said the €4.6 million in Defence savings was “just slightly more than the additional €4.48 million paid by the banks for cash escorts in 2007”. About €2 million will come from payroll savings; a further 500,000 from the deferral until 2010 of the proposed Reserve Defence Force recruitment campaign; 2.1 million will be secured in savings in the equipment and administrative budgets.” The Minister assured the House the savings will not impact operations at home or overseas.