Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I am conscious that as we rise to speak on this motion we expect Exchequer figures to be published shortly which will not bring good news for the Government or for our people. Tomorrow, we expect unemployment figures to be the worst ever and we also expect a probable downgrading of the financial standing of this country internationally.

As Leader of the Opposition, part of my job is to oppose the Government and the way it does business. We have gone beyond the stage of merely point scoring. We are in a much too serious position to involve oneself principally in the business of cross-party fire. However, a number of things need to be said. It is clear the country has yearned for leadership and a sense of direction and coherence for some time. The morale of the people is at an historic low.

Everyone in this House, which represents all sectors and people of the Twenty-six Counties, has spent the past two months listening to a soaring increase in the number of horrific stories being told in offices throughout the land including the fact that 10,000 people per month are losing their jobs, the real shock of a person becoming unemployed with no prospect of a future, people who worked for up to 40 years seeing the pension rights they thought they had accumulated disappear and those who face repossession of their homes and the social stress and consequences of this fact.

In all this time, the Government, led by the Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, effectively turned its face away from its people. It put the people on hold and real life into suspended animation by continuously stating it would come up with a grand plan and have a clear strategy for the future. Patience was shown while pain was suffered. For the past two months, the Government outsourced decision making to social partners. It is a most disgraceful abrogation of a leader's responsibility in the politics of this country.

Trust was vested in the Taoiseach and today he has stood before us and proved beyond doubt that the way business has been conducted in recent months means he did not merit the placing of this trust in him. His speech marks a unique moment in Dáil history. It is the first time that a Dáil has had placed before it a plan which has already been rejected by the social partners who played such an important part in the development and sustaining of our business during the past 30 years.

See this speech in context