Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

The Minister of State is proposing the day that will be most advantageous to the Government parties but that is a different story. The Government can hang on and hope but no help will come and its cries in the wilderness will be heard long after the election has taken place. I am not sorry even though I hate to see anyone lose his or her seat and I would never wish it on anyone, particularly myself. If those in the political establishment give an undertaking to the public they then have a moral duty to deliver. I do not care what the consequences are because once they make that promise they should stand over it. This is the reason our leader, Deputy Kenny, has entered into an electoral pact with the public. He has given an undertaking and entered into a contract in order to give some integrity to what is happening in the political process and to restore public confidence in the process and in democracy. Everybody can make promises and some people do not even know when to stop making promises.

I refer to the cynicism generated by the electronic voting. This system was neither wanted nor requested by the public. People questioned the Government's expenditure of €60 million on something nobody either wanted or asked for. I have been holding clinics for many years but nobody ever suggested a system of electronic voting or led a deputation on the subject. The Government ignored what the public said and it ignored what the experts said. On close questioning the Government said it could not have a paper trail lest it gave a different result. This was a most extraordinary admission because it clearly indicated what was going on.

The time has come for the accounts to be levelled and for the public to come out and they are willing to come out. I ask the Minister of State to take on board this motion and accept it and have the election at the time that suits the general public. The Government has done little else to suit the general public in the past five years and it has ignored the wishes of the public. Everything the public thought and said was ignored by the Government.

I would like to continue my contribution and bring many other anecdotes to the attention of the Minister of State as to the reasons he should agree to the Second Stage reading. I ask the Government to come on side for once in its life and not divide the House on this issue.

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