Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I propose to share ten minutes with Deputy Joe Costello. I add my voice of congratulations to the newly elected Deputies George Lee and Maureen O'Sullivan. I welcome them to the House and I congratulate them on their magnificent elections over the weekend.

I have spoken on several confidence motions through the years and, normally, they fall into one of two categories. The majority are probably pro forma motions because of significant or individual events. However, others are profoundly important and serious and without a shadow of a doubt this debate falls into the latter category. It is one of the most important confidence debates in which I have ever participated. The country has never needed a change of Government more than now. In the Government motion the House is asked to express its confidence in this Government. If the House, which in its English form is the House of representatives, is to truly represent the will of the people, clearly expressed, then it has no option but to defeat the Government motion. The people have spoken loud and clear, not only in opinion polls but on ballot papers. Millions of people have spoken in three different elections, those being, the local elections, the European elections and two by-elections. The people have no confidence in the Government. If we are to reflect the will of the people and to be their representatives, Theachtaí Dála, then we must use the power we have to convey the people's view tomorrow evening.

Certainly, the country is in a serious and dangerous position. A new Government with fresh ideas and an appropriate mandate is required to lead the nation forward, to give the people confidence, to give business and enterprise confidence and to give the country a sense of purpose and a sense of direction. Anyone - the Minister for Education and Science is not immune from this - who has asked people their view on what the Governments is doing in recent weeks will have been left in no doubt of the view of the vast majority.

The argument from some Government Deputies that we cannot afford an election is spurious and wrong. The fact is that we cannot afford not to have an election. Every month and day in which this Government is in power diminishes the capacity of the nation to recover. The scale and nature of the challenge is truly daunting. Some 400,000 people are on our unemployment list, which is increasing daily. This is truly staggering and frightful. In individual terms, there are horror stories for families throughout the country. The Government policy of drastic economic contraction can only add to the growing dole queues. One priority above all else must be paramount, that is, maintaining existing jobs and creating new ones. If this one area in not addressed then all the other fiscal policies and measures are futile. The policy of taxing to pay an ever-increasing demand for jobseekers' benefit is a downward spiral of disaster.

Labour has set out a ten point job creation plan, although I am sure the Minister has not read it. He is too busy dismissing the Opposition, but then he calls for what amounts to a hollow expression for a national unity of purpose. This is from the people who have led us into disaster after 12 years and who squandered the economy they were given in 1997. It is an affront to the people and it takes some cheek to call now for solidarity from the people who left the economy in such a good state at that time. The economy was handed over to them and they destroyed it in ten years with such wantonness.

The Labour Party has set out its policies, which may be debated on another occasion. Whatever the Government may say, the debate on this motion is not whether we have confidence in the Opposition, its policies or what we can do from these benches. It concerns whether the people and the Deputies elected by them have confidence in the Government.

The Minister for Education and Science stated that Ireland does not need fair weather friends. The Minister is confusing the country with his party. Fianna Fáil has grown so used to power that its arrogance now confuses the Fianna Fáil party with the nation. We have great confidence in our nation and we are not fair weather friends of it, but we have no confidence in the Fianna Fáil, Green Party, Progressive Democrats and Independents Government that has led us to disaster.

It has been said that this side of the House does not wish to be in Government at this time. I admit some of our supporters argue that this dreadful Government should be allowed to stew in its own juices. That is an understandable view, but it is quite wrong. As the Minister for Education and Science correctly stated, our country must come first. The country simply cannot afford to allow the Government to remain in office. The economic failure of the Government is clear for all to see. However, other areas are equally disastrous for our people.

I refer to the health services and the Government policy of colocation, which has thankfully been halted by the economic catastrophe. One positive element of the economic catastrophe is that the policy of colocation has somewhat slowed. The notion that we create a two-tier acute hospital system is scandalous and wrong. For this reason alone, the Government should be thrown out.

As the Minister for Education and Science will be aware, this morning the HSE published a report on acute services in the southern region. The same attitude is being focussed on my region in the south east. The national newspapers, including The Irish Independent and The Irish Examiner, have published extracts from a leaked report that would attack the acute services throughout my region and reduce my general hospital in Wexford, which caters for the largest population base in the south east, to a minor medical centre. All these issues must be addressed as a matter of urgency, but they can only be addressed with fresh thinking, new ideas and the vigour of a fresh mandate from a new Government.

I refer to the Green Party and I was in the House when the Green Party Deputy spoke. I have some regard for Green Party policies and the individuals within the Green Party. However, their contribution to the debate tonight reminds me of nothing more than "Comical Ali". As the tanks were rolling through the streets of Baghdad, "Comical Ali" with the tanks in sight was still pretending that nothing was wrong and that all would be well on the night. Their contribution in normal circumstances might have been amusing, but the Green Party's propping up of this Government is no longer funny. We will have economic debates and we will have policy debates but tonight's debate is a simple matter. The people of Ireland have spoken. No amount of obfuscation or explanation will deny that fundamental fact and it is a requirement on each of the 166 Deputies elected to this House to act on the views of the people and dismiss this Government.

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