WERE THE GOVERNMENT RECKLESS OR CAUGHT OFF GUARD?

If you look at budget speeches made by Richard Bruton TD over the last number of years he clearly warned the government on the risks they were taking with our future.

On 1 December 2004, in his Budget 2005 speech, he makes it clear that employment in export industries was falling and was being replaced by jobs in building and Government jobs.

On the 7th December 2005, he states, "The core of this budget should have concentrated on these real challanges.
*Reform to deliver real improvements at the FRONT LINE in public services.
*Improving the COMPETITIVENESS of businesses trying to survive in tough externat markets.
*Confronting rip off at its source.
*Eliminating gross waste in public spending

But these have not been the subject of today's budget.

Even as far back as 5 December 2006, Richard Bruton said in his 2007 Budget speech, "YOU CANNOT BUILD INDEFINITE SPENDIND GROWTH ON THE BACK OF A BUILDING BOOM NO MORE THAN YOU CAN BUILD LONGTERM ECCONOMIC PROSPERITY ON THE BACK OF A BUILDING BOOM".

By the time we get to 5 December 2007 for Bubget 2008, he was expressing concern that it might already be too lake to protect what we had at that point.

By the time Richard Burton stood up to make his speech @ THE EMERGENCY BUDGET of April 2009, the downward spiral had started, unemployment was shooting up and tax revenue was dropping like a stone.

The present Taoiseach, and former Minister for Finance, sat throught all of these speech over the last five years and fail to act.

Seanad debate on NAMA

This week the Seanad had a debate on NAMA, the Government's bail out bank! Watching this saga unfold makes me wonder does anyone really know what is going on. The minister and his officals remind me of a WW2 movie where the captain and crew of a U-boat are being chased by a destroyer. The crew dive deeper and deeper to avoid the dept charges, the hull of their U-boat groans and creaks but no one really knows if they are going to survive.
The false optimism of the minister is as reassuring as the nervous smile the captain gives his crew when they realise they have not been blown to bits by the latest round of explosions.
Brian Cowen tells us that the economy will grow again in 2011, if my house was worth 350,000 euro when Brian Cowen was re-elected in 2007, when does he think it will be worth that again? The reality is no one knows the answer.
In any case, Brian Cowen and Bertie Ahern are reponsible for increasing our national debt by more than 100 billion since their re-election, not the best lads to give financial advise. We are buying billions of junk from the banks, but no relief for the taxpayer!
These debates were on tuesday 26/5 both in the seanad and the finance committee, for access to the debates, go to the oireachtas website @ http://www.oireachtas.ie/.

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