Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I am pleased to contribute to what is effectively a motion of no confidence in the Government. There is much interest in the World Cup. I was pleased last night to watch some of the match between Germany and Italy. This debate reminds me somewhat of bumble bee soccer. Everybody is swarming around the ball, they are all over the pitch, there is no coherence, no co-ordination, no strategy and certainly no goals being scored as there is not in bumble bee soccer.

To govern is to choose, as Napoleon once said. Next year the people will be involved in the serious business of choosing a Government. They will recognise that in choosing one, they have the capacity to drive the country forward or backwards. Elections are not about personalities, who looks good on the front cover of Hello magazine or who can provide the best political entertainment in either this Chamber or on television and radio. It is about the serious business of governing society for a five-year period. If there is anything we have learned during the past 30 years, it is that Government economic management determines the success or failure of the economy. If we do not keep our eye focused on the ingredients that delivered unprecedented economic success, economic dry rot will set in, but unfortunately by the time it is noticed, it will have disastrous consequences.

I often feel there is a view in the Opposition that the economic performance of the country is on automatic pilot, that one can go into the Department of the Taoiseach, press a button, keep one's finger on it and regardless of who pilots or co-pilots the aeroplane, it will go in the same direction. Statements such as, "we are on your side", or "we are going to change a few procedures" sound fine, but the people are entitled to know what specific policies the would-be Government opposite will pursue in office. I suggest that if the parties opposite, Fine Gael, the Labour Party and the Green Party, are in Government together, they will not be able to get their act together in the cockpit. They will be wrestling over the controls on issues such as Aer Lingus, defence policy——

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