The public perception of politicians is rapidly reaching an all time low and the rancour and bitterness of this debate is likely to exacerbate matters. Groundless accusations of a most scurrilous nature have been made without a shred of evidence to back them up in many cases. This has been a gross abuse of the privileges of this House. Deputy Roche has thrown enough muck in this debate to fertilise all the gardens of his native county of Wicklow. Deputy Roche will always be remembered, of course, as one of the architects of the infamous Fianna Fil manifesto of 1977 which was the greatest confidence trick [972] played on this nation snce the Act of Union.
Politicians are elected as representatives to serve the people, and consequently politics should be seen as a vocation rather than a profession. Yet on recent evidence nobody could be blamed for concluding that some Irish politicians serve only themselves and their friends. A particularly disturbing feature of the recent spate of scandals is the inability of some people in Fianna Fil to see anything wrong in the scurrilous manner in which the public has been ripped off for the private gain of a few individuals. There has been no greater indication of failure than the pathetic scenes at post offices throughout the country in the past fortnight as thousands of young people queued to mail applications to the US for Morrison visas. They see no future in this country. It should be a source of national shame to all Deputies that Ireland led the nations of the world in the visa frenzy in Virginia. Is this all we can offer our young people today - a future based on a lottery? This is an indictment of our whole political system about which no-one can feel complacent.
Deputy Haughey spent years describing our young people as our greatest asset, but this Government seem quite content to see that asset squandered just as so many of the State's assets have been squandered in recent years. Our young people have looked on in anger and amazement at the level of dishonesty as revealed in the various financial scandals that have taken place. While all this is going on youth unemployment is at a record 27 per cent, the highest in Europe. The Government, since taking office, have come up with no proposal whatsoever to face up to this crisis. Their only solution is emigration, and indeed the greatest wave of emigration from this country since the famine has taken place since Fianna Fil took office in 1987.
The youth service is being savaged by ongoing cutbacks. Many jobs have been lost this year and many more are threatened. It costs an estimated 200 a week to employ one youth worker who can serve about 3,000 young people. It costs [973] an estimated 500 a week to keep one juvenile offender in custody. The Government have attempted a juggling act with the youth service and failed. On the one hand they claimed in the Programme for Economic and Social Progress that they were committed to the development of the youth service but on the other they have severely curtailed funding. Ireland has become a nation of haves and have nots. Our young people are becoming increasingly disillusioned and cynical about our system.
I would like to refer briefly to the area of sport. It is rather ironic that the Irish Olympic Council threatened in the past few weeks to boycott the national lottery because of the failure of the Government to make any commitment to sport. In 1987 the national lottery was initiated and since then it has proven to be a financial bonanza, but we have nothing of national importance to show in the sporting world for this bonanza. For the past five years the Government have promised a national indoor stadium, they have promised regional centres and a national outdoor stadium, but none of those has been provided. Indeed the greatest irony is that we have not provided a 50 metre swimming pool. A proposal was made to build such a swimming pool in Newpark but it was refused by the Government on the grounds that they were going to build one on the dock site. So far as I am concerned we are talking of a phantom swimming pool.
The public in general are becoming increasingly disillusioned as they hear about individuals with so-called connections making millions of pounds at the public's expense. It is up to the Government to provide leadership and to demonstrate that inefficiency will not be tolerated and that duplicity will result in prosecution. It seems that our laws are designed to protect the guilty. Anyone with money seems to be able to get away with just about anything. This is further eroding confidence in our whole system of justice. The Government should be providing leadership, but how can they when they do not even know what it is? [974] They obviously do not know the first thing about leadership.
This debate is about integrity, about standards in high places. It is also about the crisis in farming, in relation to unemployment, to health and to local authority funding. The Government have failed miserably in all these areas. They cannot justify their present position with regard to those matters. The people are sending loud messages which should be heeded by all sides of this House. They are fed up with what is happening. They want a decent Government who will clean up the appalling mess and tackle the problems. It is time to shout stop, no more, and let the people decide.


