Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I thank the Acting Chairman.

The Minister, Deputy Carey, stated the Government has not heard any constructive criticism. It has not heard it because it has not listened. It has not listened to anybody. A great number of constructive proposals were put forward by this side of the House but they fell on deaf ears and the country has suffered as a result.

In the past week I heard a number of Ministers repeat something that has become a mantra for members of the present coalition. They stated that since the Government and the Taoiseach decided to put the country first and take the hard decisions, they knew they would suffer at the polls and therefore they were expecting their present poor ratings. I have one simple question for the Taoiseach and his Ministers. When did they decide to start putting the country first? In this explanation for its poor showing in the polls, the Government has unwittingly identified the cause of many of our problems, namely, the failure of the Taoiseach and his Government always put the country first.

There were many examples of this during the past number of years. The most recent examples were evident in the banking reports published last week. Blaming the present poor showing of Fianna Fáil in opinion polls for its recent decisions is incorrect. The disdain in which Fianna Fáil is held is a direct result of its failure over many years to put the country first. In regard to these reports, the Taoiseach stated he accepts full responsibility for his actions while he was Minister for Finance. What exactly does this mean? In any other arena such a statement would be followed immediately by a resignation. Surely that is the logical outcome of accepting full responsibility for the economic disaster he has caused to this country.

The trickery engaged in by the Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil has never been exposed so ruthlessly as it has been since this economic crisis began. The Fianna Fáil modus operandi was always bad for this country; now it has become almost ruinous. We cannot have any more of it and that is why this Taoiseach and his Government must be removed from office. This country will never reach its full potential while the nod and wink standards that apply in the present-day Fianna Fáil party also apply to the governing of the country. There has been a serious lack of leadership in many aspects of Irish life in recent times, whether in the business, political or religious spheres. It is now time for a new leadership to assert itself and an example can be set from this House.

The Taoiseach is known as a man who values loyalty above all else. He seems to fail to realise that life is full of competing loyalties and whenever the Taoiseach's loyalty to Fianna Fáil competes with any other loyalty it has always been the loyalty to Fianna Fáil that wins out. This has had devastating consequences for this country and has led to the betrayal of a generation for whom forced emigration has become a reality.

There are things that are more important than Fianna Fáil and the Taoiseach, or indeed, Fine Gael, the Labour Party or any political party. One such is Ireland. Ireland and its people have been badly let down by this Government and its immediate predecessors. Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have seats at the Cabinet table but Ireland does not have a seat at that table. Every decision taken is in the interests of the parties at the table, even when those decisions are against the national interest. The national interest is not represented by this Government.

It is clear the economic cycle was bent by the Taoiseach and his predecessor to suit the political cycle. It is time this Taoiseach and this Government left.

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