Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

——a deficit in child care, crime on our streets, growing incivility in our society, a neglect of our elderly, a denigration of values, a deep void that affluence has failed to fill and an epidemic of suicide where loneliness kills and cries of anguish are not answered, principally because the Government reduced the budget from 11% to 6%.

The Government will not solve these problems, because to solve a problem it must first be faced. If the Government will not face a problem, it will not take responsibility nor make a decision. For the year it has left, it will be business as usual. It will continue to use the people's hard-earned money to do what it does best, subsidise problems not solve them. Tonight, the Acting Chairman would be correct to state the Government's time is almost concluded because not only does it have zero insight, it has zero energy, zero competence and zero credibility.

Ten years ago, the people gave the Taoiseach their vote, the most precious possession a democracy has, but they also gave him their trust. What did he give them in return?

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