Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

What we are about to undertake, or what the Taoiseach proposes we undertake, today and tomorrow is one of the greatest abuses of the Dáil we have seen in recent times. However, it is not just an abuse of the Dáil and not just an insult to the Members of the House who have been elected. It is also, I believe, an even bigger insult to the public.

For the past six or seven weeks we have been treated to daily speculation about what the Government is or is not deciding, or going to do about the economy and about the public finances. People all over this country are wondering will there be a cut in pay, will there be increased pension contributions, will there be increases in tax, will there be a property tax, will there be cuts in services, will there be something done to provide credit for business, and what will happen with people who are losing their jobs and what kind of services will be provided for them. All of this is what people are concerned about.

On what the Taoiseach is proposing, we are back in the Dáil after a recess, which certainly the Opposition did not want but which the Government claimed it needed in order to reflect on all of these matters. All of these meetings of the Cabinet took place. One sees Ministers who are normally mad keen to get their faces in front of a camera going into Cabinet meetings with their car windows firmly closed——

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