Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I was unable to be here all the time during the debate because, like many other Deputies, I spent the last three or four hours in Molesworth Street listening to the people on the march who were giving their take on the way the Government has dealt with the issue of redress and people who were in institutions. While we will get an opportunity to discuss that important issue tomorrow and on Friday, I would prefer if we were discussing it today and tomorrow, and had discussed it yesterday also.

With all due respects to the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Power, there is a fatal conundrum at the heart of this particular period in Fianna Fáil history. In regard to redress, to give one example, many skilful political actions were taken and a great deal of money committed and spent - €1.2 billion - but in the end it was not a job well done. That is part of the problem with the legacy of the Minister's Government for 12 years.

I realise the Minister of State, Deputy Power, acknowledged psychologically in his contribution that it is more than likely that in the next election the people will look to the Opposition parties, whatever their limitations, and I do not claim the Labour Party is perfect - Fine Gael can speak for itself but we do our best - to form the next Government and not the Green Party and Fianna Fáil because they have been in power for 12 years, which is too long.

If shares in this Government's reputation were traded on the stock exchange, what value does the Minister of State believe they would have? I would say it would be just about the same as shares in Anglo Irish Bank. Not even a Government guarantee would prompt an investor to take a punt on the Taoiseach, Deputy Brian Cowen, and even fewer on the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan.

On 29 September last, the Irish banking system was a few hours away from complete meltdown. The Government that went into panic mode that night is in much the same state of meltdown now. It is past the point of rescue, with a reputation that went bust months ago and is now irrecoverable. Everyone knows there is mutiny in the ranks. The Members will all obey the Minister of State, Deputy Carey's whip later but the mutinous atmosphere will linger on and erode even further the capacity of the Government to do the nation's business properly.

No Government in such a state of disarray can hope to motivate the country for the hard road ahead. There are deep-seated structural problems that require imaginative action from a Government with political capital and a moral authority to guide the economy to recovery. This Government has no such authority and has no reserves of trust or capital on which it can call. That is the reason the national interest requires action quickly, sooner rather than later.

This is not the usual mid-term rebuff that is so common in democratic societies. Voters should and do like to show who is boss. It happens all the time and in many countries. It happened here in 2004, but what happened here last week was fundamentally different. Every Government Deputy, Fianna Fáil or Green Party, knows the score. They know the reception they got in recent weeks and they are aware it represented a quantum leap in hatred over the mild rebuke Fianna Fáil got in 2004. It was bigger in scale and deeper in character than a routine wake-up call in mid-term. It was a clear message to the Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, and to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, to get out now.

We need a new Government with a mandate to deliver real long-term recovery because that will involve a major rebalancing of the economy away from construction to production for exports, away from financial services that no longer command credibility and away from an energy policy based on hydrocarbons to one based on renewable sources. We need sound judgment from a Taoiseach and a Minister for Finance who can recognise the difference between genuine green shoots and politically motivated claims that have no underlying substance.

The Minister for Finance, Deputy Lenihan, made a wild claim to his party's delegates in City West some months ago. He stated that as Ireland was the first country into recession, he promised it would be the first out of recession. Could the Minister seriously repeat that in this House in the light of the ever rising loss of employment - the one true signal of recovery or continued recession? The Wall Street Journal is forever referring to a so-called sucker's rally, the triumph of hope over common sense in reading stock market results for signs of recovery. There are still very significant hurdles to clear before the genuine production of wealth resumes in full. False dawns and green shoots, products of political desperation, only make the situation worse and could usher in a second phase of an already dreadful recession.

The Taoiseach has consistently displayed flawed judgement. He wildly predicted the economy would have a soft landing. In the early stages of the crisis he used to boast about how well placed Ireland was to ride out the coming storm. Let us recall all the references to soft landings to which he adverted endlessly.

See this speech in context