Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann, noting that it is now more than four years since the last general election:

deploring the many failures of the current Government including:

— the failure to deal with rising crime rates, the lower detection rates and the continuing unacceptable level of crime, ranging from gun murders to vandalism and anti-social behaviour;

— the failure to adequately protect the children of the nation by its incompetent, disjointed and ill-judged response to the issues raised by the Supreme Court judgment in the CC case;

— the failure to ensure value for taxpayers' money and the shocking waste of public money on such ill-judged and mismanaged projects as electronic voting and PPARS, a health sector computer project which ran dramatically over budget without delivering an effective payroll system;

— the failure to deal with the crisis in accident and emergency units and to clear all hospital waiting lists within two years, as promised in May 2002;

— the failure to deliver affordable child care for hard-working families;

— the failure to provide adequate school buildings in developing areas; the increase in the number of children in classes of 30 or more; and the reneging on the commitment to reduce class sizes for children under nine to below international best practice of 20:1;

— the failure to honour the commitment that 80% of all taxpayers would pay at the standard rate; the delay in closing off loopholes that allow a number of super-rich individuals to avoid paying their fair share of taxation; and the reliance instead on more than 50 stealth taxes;

— the failure to deal with rising prices which has now resulted in an annual inflation rate of almost 4%;

— the failure to deliver the required level of broadband roll-out to meet private and commercial needs;

— the failure to deal with escalating house prices which have increased at nine times the rate of inflation since 1997 or to deliver the required level of social and affordable housing;

— the failure of the Government to deliver an adequate strategy for road safety, particularly in regard to the implementation of the penalty points system;

— the failure to ensure that the benefits of economic growth were shared out fairly, as a result of which, according to Central Statistics Office figures published this week, 21% of the population are at risk of poverty; and

— the failure to halt the decline in the numbers engaged in farming and the continuing low level of income for many farm families;

— censures the Government for its many failures;

— believes that this arrogant, tired and fractured Administration has lost initiative and coherence and has descended into aimless drift; and

— concludes that the interests of the country and people would therefore best be served by the dissolution of the 29th Dáil and the holding of an early general election.

See this speech in context