James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

Currently, the Irish people are witness to and victims of the ludicrous political situation in which Fianna Fáil and the Green Party are giving to each other a mandate to continue in government to replace the one the people took from them last Friday. Despite the wishes of the majority of the people, the Taoiseach and his Government are clinging to power like ticks to a cow's hide. It was interesting to hear the Government Chief Whip claim that Fianna Fáil will embark on a process of reorganisation to make the party "fit for purpose". This, surely, is the first acknowledgement by a senior Government member that his party is unfit for the job in hand.

The overwhelming withdrawal of the mandate from the current Government by voters in the local, European and by-elections last Friday has left the country at the mercy of a Government in which it has no confidence. It is a Government that is clinging to power in the short term by the weight of numbers. Local elections are close to the heart of the people and the recent results have shown that voters can no longer endorse the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government. The people have lost confidence in the leadership and members of the Government and have used the ballot boxes to give vent to their anger.

The Taoiseach and his Ministers are refusing to take responsibility for the state of the country. Who could have confidence in a Taoiseach who defends his Government's drubbing at the hands of the electorate as being the unavoidable result of taking unpopular decisions? The Government was defeated because it caused the problem and then expected the country to bail it out.

Broken Government promises set the scene for an Ireland that was ill-equipped to deal with rather than well placed to withstand a global recession, as it was in the boom years. Many of the people in the Galway tent were responsible for this but they are not the ones paying the price. The dodgy bankers and builders should be imprisoned rather than receive the treatment they are receiving from the Government. The burden has been firmly placed on the backs of lower and middle-income workers. Did these workers ever see any reward for their hard work? They did not. Did they benefit from large bonuses, Government bail-outs or the rewards of cronyism? They did not. This is the same cronyism that has destroyed the competitive, high-productivity the Government inherited from the previous rainbow Government.

What did Irish taxpayers expect in return for hard work? They expected that the elected Government would safeguard the wealth of the Celtic tiger, the benefits of which would in time filter down to them in terms of infrastructure, jobs, pensions, health, education and preschool facilities, carers allowances, support for our farmers and business. The reality is very different. The very people who had their money squandered are now being savagely forced to replace it. Are the Government's cronies and cowboys who mismanaged and abused public funds suffering? I tell you they are not and never will under a Fianna Fáil-led Government. Fine Gael will take action against those people who wrecked our economy.

Longford-Westmeath is urgently in need of a balanced comprehensive job creation programme. We are now at crisis point with live register figures for Longford rising by 88.4% from May 2008 to May 2009 and Westmeath figures rising by 91% in the same 12-month period. It is horrifying to think that the national unemployment figures have topped 400,000 and will reach half a million by the end of the year. It is time for this Government to go. I support the motion of no confidence in this Government. The Taoiseach should go to the park this evening and dissolve this Dáil. If he has any respect for the people he will give a mandate to Fine Gael and Labour to govern.

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