Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

Fine Gael threatened to put down a motion of no confidence, but the Government's motion today responded to that. Ireland needs a new Government. Despite what the Taoiseach said today, it is clear the public has lost faith and trust in the people who have been governing Ireland for nearly 12 years.

The election result was no minor mid-term protest intended to give the Government a wake-up call. It was more fundamental than that. It is dishonest of Ministers, such as Deputy Martin and others, to dismiss the result as nothing more than a mid-term go at the Government. Many government parties in countries throughout the European Union which are experiencing recession did not get the response the Government received last Friday in two by-elections and in local and European elections. We cannot continue as before with the approval of the public, as the Taoiseach proposes to do.

Government spokespeople are peddling the myth that Fianna Fáil is being punished for taking brave and correct decisions in response to recession. It should not treat the electorate like fools. The electorate are angry because they are sophisticated enough to know that the governance of the country in the past four or five years added significantly to the country's woes. The international recession has contributed to our difficulties, but the management of our economy and financial system and the Government's reliance on a property boom for revenue was utterly irresponsible. It has resulted in our floundering and trying to deal with a deficit of at least €20 billion this year. We do not have the capacity to respond as we should to recessionary times by putting in place stimulus packages and creating financial support systems that would create jobs. It is dishonest of the Government not to recognise the significant mistakes which are making life more difficult for working people and families.

It is because of that realisation that people are angry and frustrated and have lost faith in the Government's capacity to deliver recovery. The public experienced this Government in the past. People were sold a pup in the past four or five years. They were given the impression by the Taoiseach himself that the good times would last forever. They were told we could continue to borrow and spend forever and to invest in property because it would increase in value forever by 5%, 10% or 20% per year. The Government fuelled that expectation, knowing the boom could not last. That is why people are angry. The Government should not spin these facts by claiming it is taking hard and courageous decisions to bring about recovery or that decisions are being taken in the interest of country and not of party. That is not why the Government is unpopular. It is nonsense and does not wash with people.

We require a national debate on how Ireland should bring about recovery. That can be facilitated only by a general election. This would force all parties, including my own, to put their cards on the table and to outline their policies to create jobs, to reduce the deficit and to limit the risk to taxpayers from banks' bad debts. In the absence of a general election we will not have such a full debate on how Ireland should recover in the next four or five years.

The political system, like the banking and financial regulatory systems, needs to cleanse itself by getting rid of the people who are responsible for making the mistakes and replacing them with new people who will bring about recovery. I listen to Ministers rightly attack the way decisions were made in banks in the past five or six years. They criticise the Financial Regulator for failing to do his job and condemn the relationship between the regulator and the banking system. All parties make the case that we need to start afresh with new people and structures. Ministers do not apply the same rationale to politics. They think it is acceptable for the Minister for Finance to make a hash of last September's budget, requiring 42 changes before Christmas. He takes no political responsibility for that. They think it acceptable for the Government to get its projections entirely wrong, to have to bring in emergency budgets and find an extra saving of €4 billion before the end of the year. There has been no political accountability for that.

This is why people are angry. They have had enough of the hypocrisy of politics and of the Government, which applies different standards to other sectors of the economy which have made mistakes and are suffering the consequences of them. Those consequences are not suffered by politicians who have, equally, put Ireland in a perilous financial and economic state.

The Taoiseach says he intends to be courageous and to continue along the tough path he has chosen to bring about recovery. To be courageous would be to go to the country, to put his plan to the test and to force my party and others to do the same. Let the people choose how Ireland should bring about recovery. It will not be easy to do. The nation needs to make sacrifices because of the mistakes we have made in the past, combined with international recession which is also making life difficult. Irish people will accept hardship and sacrifice if they see it as part of a road to recovery. They will not put up with hardship if they do not see a plan for recovery as part of the pain process. They do not see that from the Government. They do not trust it to bring about that change.

The Government's problem is one of communication and trust, as much as of policy. Ireland is on the floor. We must begin by being honest and truthful with people, tell them how bad things are and have a contest of ideas as part of a general election where all parties would present their solutions to the banking, unemployment and deficit crises as well as the crises in the health and education systems. We must have the courage to go out and do that.

The Government was given a mandate by the people. It has a constitutional mandate to continue if it wants to. It does not have a political or moral mandate to continue. It was elected under totally different circumstances. We are in a different situation from when the Government was elected. In 2007, Fine Gael, the Labour Party, Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party presented election manifestoes based on figures which are now fantasy. We must be honest enough to say that. We need to start again. We need a new programme for Government. We need a Government with a new mandate based on plans of action which parties should be forced to put on the table.

That kind of renewal cannot happen in the absence of a general election. Otherwise, even if the Government does not put a step wrong between now and the end of the year, or between now and the end of the Dáil's term, it does not have sufficient political capital or trust to carry off that. That is the Government's problem. It is like a manager who has lost the dressing room. People no longer trust the Government to be able to deliver in difficult times. For this reason, it is necessary to return to the electorate for a new mandate for a new government. Even if the new Government were led by the Fianna Fáil Party, it would at least have a moral and political mandate to demand sacrifice and pain in the process of bringing about recovery.

The Fine Gael Party has ideas and people in whom members of the public will believe.

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