Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I congratulate the Members nominated for appointment by the President to the Government. In particular, I congratulate the new Ministers, for whom it is a great day. I congratulate my constituency colleagues, the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, who has retained a position in the Cabinet, and Deputy Barry Andrews, who will be appointed. I join in the tributes paid to the former Minister, Deputy Brennan, and the former Minister of State, Deputy Tom Kitt, Galway men who represented a neighbouring constituency in south Dublin.

However, this is not a new Government. It is a recycled Fianna Fáil Government that has been in power for 11 years. The captain's armband has been passed to a new Taoiseach and there have been a few substitutions and some position switches, but this is essentially the same team. In its composition, it is more of a Fianna Fáil Government than has been the case for a long time. It is the closest we have been to a single party Fianna Fáil Government since Charles Haughey was defeated in a general election in 1981. It is an exaggeration to call it a coalition.

It saddens me to see what has happened to the Green Party, as I identify with its politics and philosophy, and the extent to which its Members sacrificed what they stand for to obtain office. When the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, seconded and poured praise on the newly nominated Taoiseach, all that came to mind was Stockholm syndrome, a psychological response sometimes seen when an abducted hostage shows signs of loyalty to the hostage-taker regardless of the danger or risk in which the former has been placed.

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