Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Kenny will be aware that under the Constitution my mandate is the one I received from this House 12 months ago. It is a great privilege to have it. I will use it, with the authority of that office and those with whom I am in Government, to continue with policies which we believe are, and which are becoming accepted across Europe as being, the policies necessary for this country. The policies are ones that are approved by the European Commission in its job dealing with the euro area currency, our own ESRI and others who confirm that we are heading in the right direction. I know that these policies have imposed hardships on our people. I know there has been uncertainty. Of course we worry about the increasing joblessness. However, we also know that the level of adjustment, which has been significant this year, must continue next year and the year after, and that this Government, and the parties and the people who support this Government in this House, have been prepared to take those decisions.

The Deputy has been continuing with this rather disingenuous argument that I do not have a mandate. I have the very same mandate as the Taoiseach under which he served and that mandate was of the same quality of any other Taoiseach who had the privilege to serve his country from this position. Of course it is a pretty predictable political attempt - rather clumsy, I would have thought, since it seeks to disregard the constitutional proprieties. This House will have the opportunity this week to decide whether the majority has confidence in this Government or not, and that will be the democratic decision of this Assembly. That is the means, under the Constitution, by which we hold or do not hold elections. When we complete our mandate, which we received in 2007 and which we intend to complete in 2012, we will of course go to the people on the issue of the day then, which will be whether to elect this Government or any other.

What was decided upon on Friday last was the election of people to the local authorities and to the European Parliament. I congratulate those who were successful and commiserate with those who were defeated. It was a democratic contest.

What people are fed up of, by the way, in my opinion, is the continuing negativity that Deputy Kenny is portraying.

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