Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

Most of those voters did not want to see the same battered vessel or tired crew put back to sea. They did not want to see it patched up and put out with new bunting. They wanted to see a serious change of government, which is what Deputy Kenny would offer as Taoiseach.

The past seven years have been a period of unique opportunity. Extraordinary wealth was available to the Government to transform our community, the way we live and the way our people are served, but that opportunity has been allowed to slip by. It has not been properly harvested and many have not seen the fruit of the success created. We should be looking back on a seven-year period in which we created a world class health service, made it easier for families to bear their burdens and when there were safer streets than at the beginning of the millennium, but that is not the situation. For this reason, we need far-reaching reform.

In Deputy Kenny, we have a man who has made it possible for the Dáil to vote for a complete change of government, which is a singular achievement. There are enough people who are not part of Fianna Fáil to create an alternative government, to elect a government that, rather than being another pastel shade of Fianna Fáil, is committed to serious reform across the length and breadth of public services.

I propose a man who does not make promises to voters that he does not intend to honour when he is returned to government. I propose a man who remoulded a defeated party some years ago and created the most vibrant force in politics which won 20 seats in the recent election, unlike any other party in the Dáil. I propose a man who has built a platform for real change with Deputy Rabbitte and the Labour Party that offers the opportunity to transform much in this country that needs change.

We are embarking on more challenging times for which the last Government should have prepared us. We should be in a stronger position to deal with issues of competitiveness, climate change and the delivery of quality public services to those who need them, but we are not. For this reason we need radical change, someone who leads by example and someone who stands up and sets high standards for himself and those around him. This is what Deputy Kenny brings. He is a unique leader for a new generation, a leader not in the old style of "the Boss", but someone who motivates and who creates self-belief, a winning team and the sort of new and open Ireland that is needed. He is a man who will lead a new type of government where voices that have been long ignored will be heard, where outcomes and not inputs will be the test of performance, where waste will not be rewarded with promotion and where the abuse of public office will finally be put behind us. Therefore, I propose Deputy Kenny for the position of Taoiseach.

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