Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy John Paul Phelan for sharing his time with me.

I return to some of the commentary made by Deputy Seán Fleming before he left the House. The vacant Fianna Fáil benches are reminiscent of the vacant attitude Fianna Fáil took to the running of the country when it was in government. Unless I was in a parallel universe, Deputy Seán Fleming made out in the contribution that the troika programme was somehow a good thing for Ireland and that the people did not mind having a group of outsiders overseeing what we were doing. I find it very difficult to understand how anybody could suggest the surrender of the country's sovereignty was anything other than treachery and a bad thing. Deputy Seán Fleming may get another opportunity to speak when he might like to enlighten us on how he thinks giving away the country's sovereignty is a good thing. That remark cuts to the bone of how out of touch Fianna Fáil in opposition has been about this issue.

Last week we saw the spectacle of the Fianna Fáil leader, with a belated interest in financial responsibility, coming into the House to oppose the taking of the order to announce the fact that the Government was not going to seek a secure line of credit but was going to inform European finance Ministers that we were going it alone.

The attitude of the Opposition that day, Fianna Fáil in particular, smacked of a group of people who had learned nothing from the cataclysmic destruction of the economy into which they led us over a 14 year period. This destruction was symbolised by the arrival of three people, representing three organisations, on the day Dublin Airport's new terminal was opened. This, again, was another symbol of what the country was facing because that terminal has been used in the intervening period and is still being used for the export of some of our brightest because of our economic collapse.

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