Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Two issues bring us to the House today, the first is this emergency legislation, the second is the clear crisis in Government and the clearer crisis of public confidence in the Government. All this week the Government's bungling was a degrading political floor show. In the time ahead, more information will come to light which will discredit this complacent and incompetent coalition. At this stage, for most people, the term "Government" is a stretch too far. The country has been convulsed by the events of the past week. Alarmingly, though, the coalition is oblivious. It has absolutely no insight into the scale of the crisis in the public mind or the scale of the incompetence within its ranks.

This is a Government dangerously and damagingly out of touch with the people it is supposed to serve. Even in the past 24 hours, Cabinet Ministers have been slapping themselves on the back for their performance. In the rarefied atmosphere of the Cabinet, it may well be a triumph, but to the rest of the country, in the real Ireland, it is an unmitigated, unparalleled disaster.

The Taoiseach put it best this morning from the safe haven of the UN in New York. He told the country: "Nobody is to blame. There is no reaction to anything". Despite his comments, the rapists of children walk free.

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