Dáil debates

Tuesday, 9 June 2009

Confidence in Government: Motion

 

6:00 pm

Photo of Joe CostelloJoe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I thank my colleague, Deputy Brendan Howlin, for sharing his time.

This is a very timely and important motion coming as it does immediately following the people having spoken in the European elections and in local elections. These were very extensive elections involving every constituency. In every constituency except Laois-Offaly, the message has been the same; Fianna Fáil has been rejected and the Greens have been decimated. Fianna Fáil now has only three MEPs, one quarter of the total number of 12. The party has only 218 out of 883 local authority seats and this is less than one quarter of the total number of available seats. It has no MEP in Dublin and the Green Party, God help it, has lost all its local authority seats in Dublin, retains only three local authority seats in the entire country and it has no MEP. Deputy Michael Lowry in Tipperary with four county council seats and three urban council seats is now a much bigger political entity than the Green Party.

Deputy Howlin and I listened to Deputy Gormley as he directed some snide remarks at the Labour Party. He should get his facts right. He referred to the Labour Party having abolished a levy in some budget but the statistics show that the only levy abolished was in 2005 and it was abolished by the person with whom he is in coalition, the current Taoiseach, who was the Minister for Finance and who abolished the bank levy. This was a modest proposal at the time which took €103 million in the previous year from the banks because of their significant profits of €4 billion a year at that time. Now the banks are making no profits and there is very little to take off them while in fact the Government is now distributing largesse to them. I remind the House that in the 2005 budget, Deputy Brian Cowen abolished the bank levy. If Deputy Gormley has other information, I invite him to come to the House and give it out.

The electoral turn-out in last week's election was 57.7%, a statistic that is not to be sneezed at as it is not a minimal turn-out. It was a substantial turn-out as elections go. It is clear the people have agreed a motion of no confidence in the coalition Government of the Greens and Fianna Fáil which now has the support of only one quarter of the electorate and has no mandate to govern. It is as simple as that. Every constituency voted against this Government and rejected it. In the two by-elections, the people rejected the Government parties. Fianna Fáil came third in Dublin South and a mere fifth in Dublin Central. The brother of the former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern who had been Taoiseach up to 12 months' ago and had served in that office for eleven successive years, was destroyed in that election in Dublin Central, losing both the by-election and his council seat. We are all people who operate in the field of public representation and therefore have a certain collegiality and I sympathise with the human and family tragedy created by such a downfall. However, this was a political dynasty which was the strongest in the country and it is now crumbling and falling apart. It was a sad day for Maurice Ahern but it has been a traumatic day for Fianna Fáil in its political heartland. It is disingenuous of any Government Minister to argue that these were not the real elections and to say as the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Mary Hanafin, said on Sunday night, that a general election would produce what she termed, a different result. For the first time in my 20 years in politics, the local elections were not fought on local issues but on national issues. This election was fought on taxation, levies, corruption, cronyism, education cuts, job losses and the demise of small businesses and these were all the order of the day, not to mention the Christmas bonus. The Minister, Deputy Hanafin, is right; the result would be different but it would be a far worse result for this dysfunctional Government if a general election were to be called now. This is a clear case of the two beaten parties hanging together - as can be seen from their contributions today - rather than hanging separately. This is a case of personal survival or rather the personal interest being at stake. The reference to the public interest and tough decisions is mere lip service. If one makes tough decisions they must be the right decisions and they are not being made.

The reason for the collapse in support for the Government is quite simple; the Government failed dismally to confront the present economic crisis in any meaningful way. It has become obsessed with bailing out the banking system; it has failed to protect small and medium enterprises by ensuring a regular cash flow and has therefore caused a continuing haemorrhage of jobs which has had a traumatic effect on family life and on the fabric of Irish communities and it has undermined people's jobs and careers.

I refer to the Small Firms Association, ISME, which for the past nine or ten months has been shouting from the rooftops that the Government has been sitting on its hands. ISME members employ 800,000 people, a total of 50% of the entire private sector workforce yet they cannot get credit or a cash flow. They cannot keep people in jobs even though they want to. These are the companies which are haemorrhaging jobs because the Government is failing to put the pressure on the banks to lend the money. The most recent survey last month shows that the majority of small and medium enterprises who have been ten years with a bank are not getting a cash flow. The Government is guaranteeing the banks and recapitalising them and giving them the support of the €90 billion NAMA overhang debt bail-out but yet it cannot crack the whip and demand that they lend to those companies that need to employ people to keep exports and production moving. The Government should tell the banks to go to Europe where money is available at a low rate of interest and to bring that money back into the Irish economy to be distributed. The European Investment Bank is dying to lend the money to us and yet the Government will not take action.

As the Labour Party spokesperson for European affairs, I have a particular concern about the prospect of the Government leading this country into the forthcoming referendum on the Lisbon treaty. The same Government's mismanagement of the previous referendum last year was directly responsible for the failure to present a coherent campaign and contributed significantly to the rejection by the electorate of the treaty. Deputy Martin is now the Minister for Foreign Affairs, although he was not at the time of the last referendum, and he understands the importance of this issue. There is real danger that a second referendum presented by this same dysfunctional Government will be rejected because the people simply find this Government more and more untrustworthy. A second rejection of the Lisbon treaty could have calamitous effects for the economy, for funding and finance from Europe, for foreign direct investment and for Irish exports. These would be dealt a huge blow and with knock-on effects on our economy which is one of the most fragile economies not only in Europe but in the world and which is already virtually on its knees. There is no way this Government could survive a second rejection of the Lisbon treaty in October.

I issue a warning that a furious, angry Irish electorate would take advantage of the opportunity presented by a second referendum to kick the Government again just as it did last week and vote accordingly. This would be understandable in the present circumstances but it would be disastrous for the country and it could happen. For Ireland's future in Europe, for its economic future and for the good of the people, the Government should go to the country now. It should let a new Government with a fresh mandate lead the country in the second campaign to have the Lisbon treaty ratified and lead the country into the future.

That is the honourable action for the Government to take now. I ask this of the Minister, who understands perhaps better than most what this entails and what a destructive thing it would be if we were to have a second rejection of the Lisbon treaty. The Government should do the honourable thing in the national interest.

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