Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

I wish to demand an overall account of the Taoiseach's stewardship of Irish society. Does he agree that two key headlines this morning aptly sum up his Government's record? Multimillionaires wallow in a tax break bonanza, but in the second-richest country in Europe, we do not need a report from Sweden but only the testimony of pensioners on trolleys to confirm that in terms of our health service we limp in behind all but one of the poorest ex-Stalinist states. Is there any doubt that in the nine years Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats Party have been in Government, they have pursued a right-wing neo-liberal economic agenda, piling wealth on the greediest sections of society — that minority of super-rich and speculators — while working people are on a treadmill of monstrous house prices, commuter gridlock, expensive child care and a devastating lack of infrastructure.

The Government has wasted the fruits of the boom. This is the key issue. It slashes taxes on the super-rich but social and educational infrastructure in areas of booming population increases is stunningly absent. Children with disabilities, for example, are still denied occupational and speech therapy. The Taoiseach has perhaps one year left in Government. What hope is there now of a resolution in any of these critical areas? What hope is there for a focus on the critical problems in the areas of health and infrastructure, in particular, when the past four weeks have shown that this Government has a sense of direction that lies somewhere between "Wanderly Wagon" and the ancient tribes of Israel wandering in the desert, but with no Moses and no burning bush?

The Taoiseach faces a mutiny on the Fianna Fáil ship. When the normally mild-mannered Deputy Johnny Brady begins to exude a whiff of political sulphur, one knows there is trouble.

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