Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

It is a given that the electorate is tired of the Government. This has been the case for the last couple of years. Blinded by arrogance and a detachment from the people it purports to represent, the results of the 2004 elections and the messages they contained went unnoticed and unheeded. In recent months a string of opinion polls which reflect the mood of the electorate has finally hit home and we have the spectacle in Fianna Fáil of politicians turning inward in fear as each scrambles for survival. In the Progressive Democrats self has been placed before service to the country and more energy has been expended in seeking to manipulate the media than in addressing the many problems in health and justice.

The Government has measured its effectiveness in the quantity of funding that it disperses. Nobody else who will go to the polls at the next general election will make their judgment on the same basis. The Government is seeking to rewrite history. It seeks to claim that it created the Celtic tiger but I cannot imagine Deputy Martin, Deputy Cullen and Deputy O'Dea creating it when history will show that they destroyed the fruits of the economy with a series of ill-judged and mismanaged projects, with which we are familiar. In time, I expect many more will come to the surface as the squabble to dole out the largesse results in no value for money proofing.

Fine Gael and the Labour Party will form the next Government and that realisation has driven the coalition into panic. Every possible measure is being invoked to stem the tide. Vague references are made to the last full term Fine Gael and Labour Party Government, a Government which brought forward a social agenda that was opposed by Fianna Fáil but later embraced by that party and which recognised that financial responsibility was imperative for survival after the squandering that took place after 1977. Despite the Opposition's obstruction at every hand's turn during that period, Alan Dukes took responsibility when there was a change of Government. Perhaps the biggest sin was the attempt to undermine the Anglo-Irish Agreement, the forerunner to the Good Friday Agreement. Fine Gael and the Labour Party set the agenda for the past 20 years and, after opportunistic opposition, the Government embraced virtually every idea formulated by Fine Gael and the Labour Party during their period in office. We will also set the agenda for the next 20 years which will be based on equality of opportunity. The Taoiseach stated tonight that the alternative government did not outline how it hoped to achieve peace on this island, or words to that effect. I remind him that the Good Friday Agreement was passed in 1998 but the past eight years have been years of stalemate as the middle ground has almost disappeared with the extremes in the ascendancy. I wonder how history will judge that period.

The Government has shown no vision for or commitment to the people. I listened to the bluster of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, and recall how he claimed that a Private Members' Bill which I had presented to assist volunteers was flawed. He was wrong, just as he was wrong last week in his rejection of Fine Gael's home protection Bill. The humble pie he had to eat following his disastrous handling of the age of consent issue and his climbdown following the infantile attack on Deputy Bruton seem to have been ill digested, given that he said tonight "a hell of a lot more than you will do in a lifetime" in response to a heckle. Such arrogance is the root cause of the Government's problems. The Minister also alluded to Fine Gael's position on the triple lock. It is clear he does not talk to his party's chairman, Senator Minihan, although this is not surprising. Senator Minihan stated last week in the Seanad that he supported our position on the matter.

The Government's amendment refers to resources for the Prison Service. On 4 May bed capacity in Mountjoy Prison was 445 but the number in custody was 500; bed capacity in the Dóchas centre was 85 but there were 96 in custody; bed capacity in Cork Prison was 253 but the number in custody was 256; bed capacity in Castlerea Prison was 206 but there were 214 in custody. It is no wonder the Minister cannot do his job.

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