Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I welcome our new Deputy and he made an excellent speech today and now I know why the country is in disarray; because the Cabinet has been asleep for the past ten years. They might have been meditating but if they were we know what they were meditating about, it was not about the country and the economy.

The reason Fine Gael tabled this motion was because the people spoke over the weekend. The people at the doorsteps asked us to bring back a message to the Dáil and that message is that they want a general election. The only people who do not want a general election are Fianna Fáil and the Green Party because afterwards they will fit in the corner of the House where the Independent Deputies sit because the people are waiting for them in the long grass. The Government has let down the country and the people. The people want to give their verdict and are awaiting that opportunity. People are concerned about their jobs, families and homes but all the Government is worried about is staying in power. They have lost touch with the people. They have been in Government for too long and they are so arrogant that they think the only place they should be is in Government.

What Fianna Fáil wants now is the list system and this morning I heard the Minister for Transport, Deputy Noel Dempsey, speak on this. That is the only way that some of its Deputies will get back because the people will not put them back. I want to say to the Minister of State, Deputy John Curran, and the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, that it is not enough to tell the people that everything is all right. The people are intelligent and know what is going on. Last weekend, they judged the Government, the Green Party and Fianna Fáil. The people are waiting also for the Independent Members who support the Government because they are propping up the Government when the people want it out.

What people want now is hope and new ideas. Deputy Kenny and Fine Gael have the ideas. We have the people to put the Government under pressure and create jobs in the country. We have the ideas and new thinking to ensure people get back into work and are not concerned about their homes being taken away and to have a bit of fair play in society, something we have not had for the past ten years because the rich got richer, the poor got poorer and the weak were trampled on by those in the tents in Galway.

Yesterday, the Taoiseach said here that he had a mandate. He does not. The first opportunity on which he was adjudicated was last Friday and Saturday and he failed that test. The Taoiseach and the Government should go to the country now and let us see what the people will say.

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