Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The public coffers have been emptied, the developers and the banks are bust, and trade unions have little to offer. The game is up, the Taoiseach's strategy has failed and his network of power and patronage is disintegrating around him. Now, we expect, public servants, small businesses and PAYE workers will be asked to bear serious pain to help solve problems created by catastrophic failures on the part of politicians, bankers, business leaders and regulators.

Legitimate recovery cannot be just about dishing out pain to public servants without making decisions that begin with what has been described as a revolution in the way public services are managed from the top down. The failure to achieve this demonstrates the real failure of the Government to address the governance of the country, the scale of that governance and the way it has proceeded in the wrong direction over recent years.

For our part, we have stated on many occasions that everything about the Taoiseach's style of leadership and government must change if we are to escape this meltdown. The only way to recovery is through serious reform. The Taoiseach says he is moving ahead to make the decisions outlined in his statement today. Where are the decisions to break up the cosy relationships between Ministers and senior civil servants that conceal waste in Departments, evade scrutiny, duck responsibility or reward gross failures with golden handshakes? Where is the strategy to deal with these?

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