Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

——I assure the House that industry and the consumer will have a huge bill to pay as a result of what the Government is doing. The Government wants to drive up energy prices, bring in more money in VAT, levies and dividends from the ESB and walk away. However, the electorate may yet have something to say about that.

The Minister decried the fact that Fine Gael did not want to become involved in an all-party consensus on energy. If we had any doubt about what he had in mind, we know now. We were not foolish enough to become part of an all-party consensus on high energy prices. We do not wish to hound the housewife and the industrialist, or to beat them over the head with an all-party consensus. It was the greatest con job of all time. The Government had it well planned in advance and it must have had the think tanks working overtime. Condensation must have been pouring out of the heads of Government Deputies by the time they came up with that particular consensus. They should be ashamed of it because it does not do justice to their cleverness at all. They should have come up with something much more subtle than that. If they had been given time, they would have done so. They should be given time on the Opposition benches. They could examine their consciences and ask themselves a few serious questions about what they had in mind.

Before they throw themselves on their swords——

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