Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The Sinn Féin Deputies cannot accept the Order of Business as presented. As a schedule it represents a total lack of realism on the part of the Government. It is not a case of returning here for business as usual, in the way things finished up in the earlier period of the year, at which time the Government was clearly bankrupt in terms of legislative proposals. Yet here we are starting off again. What is the Government offering Members to address on the first day of the second year of the 30th Dáil? It is an absolute disgrace.

It is not business as usual. There is nothing usual about the circumstances in which we find ourselves. The country has been plunged into a sharp economic decline. Tens of thousands of people are being placed on the dole queue. Health cuts are continuing to hurt right across the board, despite all the assurances given by the Minister for Health and Children and Professor Drumm of the HSE. On the ground, these cuts are biting and they are hurting gravely. We need an opportunity to articulate these problems and to bring them to Government notice in this Chamber. That opportunity must be presented by Government.

We must make no mistake about the programme for Government. It was put together by a Taoiseach who is no longer Taoiseach and a party that has almost hung up its cap and coat. There is no programme for Government. What the Government has cobbled together, presumably over the period since last we sat in this Chamber, is a programme for cuts. Its members must come clean before this Chamber. They must outline the reality that they know from within their Departments and their proposals to address the realities facing our citizenry today. As Opposition voices, we need the opportunity to hear clearly the Government's intentions, to analyse them, give our views, offer what further guidance and opinion we can to try to improve on the Government's proposals and to point out where they are clearly going to fail. That is our role and responsibility, yet the Government is asking us to proceed on matters such as electoral boundaries. For God's sake, that is not what the people out there want us to address today. They want us to address the matters that are most affecting their daily lives, that is, the current recession — we should call it what it is and not be afraid to use the R-word — the further contraction of job opportunities in the State, the ongoing cuts that are hurting people in the health services and the failure of Government to provide for the needs of our children through the education system. These are the issues we should address. It is an absolute disgrace that this is the best the Government can present, through the office of the Chief Whip, as a proposal for the work of this House today and tomorrow. It is absolutely not good enough.

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