James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

When the debate adjourned last night, I was speaking of the Government's complete loss of credibility. Moreover, we have only reached the starters on the menu, as the main course of the great Cowen-Lenihan-Coughlan depression of the new millennium's first decade has yet to come. It has been caused by a Fianna Fáil-led government that has been in power for nearly 20 of the past 22 years.

In the last few years of that time, the Government has been squandering and wasting the years of plenty, to be followed now by what looks like years of famine. What cheer do the good people of Ireland have to which to look forward? Basically none, but rather a summer of discontent that will come to its natural conclusion at the polls sooner rather than later. The first test will be on 5 June, when Fianna Fáil and the Green Party will be wiped out in the local and European elections.

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