Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I did not interrupt the Minister even once. He does not get it. According to the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, it is the fault of the people. They should be more gracious and understanding of the great initiatives that have been taken. It is the fault of the media for not telling us about these great initiatives.

The Government does not get it. The public will not be ruled by the Government much longer. The people know exactly the hole the Government and the Fianna Fáil Party has dug for them with their extraordinary waste and duplication over the past decade of soft-option politics by Deputy Bertie Ahern. People will not be led by the Government because it has put us into a hole and they have no confidence in the Minister or his party to deliver us from it. That was the message from the ballot box last Friday. People are not fools. They know exactly the tough medicine that is required but they will not take it from the Government because of the soft option politics it peddled in this country for the past decade.

It was my party that had the courage to say that benchmarking was wrong and that had the courage to put flesh on the need for public sector reform in this country over the past decade when the Government arrogantly rejected it. Now the Minister is telling us that Fianna Fáil is the party to lead us out of the hole it has put us into. People are laughing at the Minister. The more he comes to realise that, the more he will realise his own way forward.

The Taoiseach says he has a mandate in parliamentary terms until whenever the next election takes place. We should refer to another aspect of the Constitution, namely, the sovereign wish of the people. The people are sovereign and they have spoken, not in some mid-term blues but in the context of an election with more than 50% participation. They want Fianna Fáil and the Green Party out of Government as soon as possible. That is what this motion is about.

I appeal to the members of the Green Party who spoke about their mandate. Going into the previous general election they told us their mandate was about standing up for education services and delivering an additional €350 million year-on-year for those services. What did we get in response? A total of 128 special needs classes affecting the most vulnerable children in our education system are being abolished from this September. If the Green Party cannot support them, what can it stand for?

The Taoiseach is a two-time loser. He lost the referendum on the first Lisbon treaty. He lost again last Friday. Unless he is removed between now and next September or October when we have the second referendum on the Lisbon treaty I suspect we could lose again. The latest poll data shows not a huge difference between the "Yes" vote and the "No" vote. The Taoiseach has no authority to lead the people in the most important decision that affects the country, namely, whether we are in the new European Union entity. That is why it is so crucial that we have a general election between now and then and that we put this issue to the test. Even if he wants to lead them, the Taoiseach has neither the authority nor the ability to lead the people towards a positive "Yes" vote, which is so required for the country if we are to get back on our feet.

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