Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

Clearly, Deputy Kenny even wrong-footed his colleagues, so-called friends or potential partners in the Labour Party by doing so. It was an ill-judged move but one I welcomed.

Earlier I listened to Deputy Coveney whose premise was that we should govern in good times but, because there are great challenges facing the country, we should cut and run. Of course the real challenge of any political party, and of any Government, is to face the obstacles, particularly the difficult ones that arise in the type of economic circumstances prevailing, not only nationally but internationally. It would be an appalling abdication of responsibility if the Government were to succumb on the basis that the two political parties opposite suddenly want an election on the basis of a good day at the office on the local elections. At the many doors I called to I, my party and the Government received much criticism. People were hurting, people were losing their jobs, people were seeing their salaries cut and were very upset. However, one of the striking features of all of the discussions in many households, even those that told me they would vote for Fine Gael, is that if a general election were called, they would not vote for an alternative because there is none.

Deputy Kenny should be aware of the thin ice and the high moral ground on which he is trying to stand in pretending, even in the House today, that somehow the country is about to rush to the saviours that he sees in the Fine Gael Party, the Labour Party and whoever else - possibly, from his point of view, Sinn Féin - who may coalesce with them because that will not happen.

We will deliver this country out of this economic recession.

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