Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

The replies given by the Taoiseach in response to Leaders' Questions are a very clear indication of the total inability of this Government to run the country. The fact is that €4 billion of taxpayers' money, probably an extra €3.5 billion and quite likely a great deal more money is now going into a completely zombie bank which has no customers apart from those that were there prior to last autumn. That money is provided at the expense of the taxpayer and there is no money for essential services that are needed. We are talking about €4 billion put into a zombie bank while €9.6 million is needed by Crumlin Children's Hospital to provide essential services for children and €16 million is needed for a vaccine to protect women from developing cervical cancer. I might add child and adolescent psychiatric teams and beds because children are now in adult psychiatric hospitals. There are 6,000 children at risk who do not have a social worker and 8,000 children are at risk who have not even had a preliminary assessment. Special needs teachers are gone. The numbers of children living in consistent poverty are increasing.

We clearly have a totally incompetent Government that should go now. This Government got its mandate under entirely false pretences. It was the Taoiseach, then the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, who turned around that election in the last week of its campaign because he argued that Fianna Fáil could run the economy better than anybody else. That has proved to be spectacularly untrue. That mandate was given by the people under false pretences and they clearly recognised as much by the result they gave in the local and European elections and in the by-elections last week.

It is clear this Government does not have a mandate. Since the general election it has been running the economy and there has been a haemorrhaging of jobs. From May 2008 to May 2009 the live register increased in numbers from 207,000 to 402,100. The Government stood back and watched that happen. It stood back as small firms went to the wall for lack of credit. It set up the bank guarantee which put taxpayers' money at the mercy of reckless speculators, incompetent and corrupt banks and lap-dog regulators. While all that was going on the real economy and the real society have suffered. Small sums of money, such as I have indicated, would have made all the difference while billions were advanced to bail out banks.

We watched this happen and 400,000 people are now on the live register. I have met many of them and have talked to the Dell workers who lost their jobs. There is still no application from Government in respect of the globalisation fund available from Europe. There is still no system in place whereby funding can be applied for which has been made available from Europe for small businesses. No bank is applying for it. The Government has put in place the bank guarantee, but we still have no mechanism for applying for that funding.

Accusations were made by Members on the Government side yesterday, including a display the like of which I have never seen by the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Deputy Martin Cullen. He showed a total lack of understanding of how the people feel. Suggestions were made that this side of the House had no policies. Clearly, the Government has not looked at the policies that have come from this side. The Labour Party has put forward a number of proposals, particularly proposals focused on the retention of jobs. We also put forward pre-budget proposals on how we would stem the fiscal problem, including having the courage to propose a higher rate of tax and a cap on the amount that can be earned in the public service.

We have also put forward proposals for the social economy. For example, in 2002, the Labour Party was the first party to propose universal health insurance. The estimated cost at that time for introducing a full universal health insurance system was £5 billion. When that is translated into euro and upgraded to current values, it amounts to far less than the €16 billion currently going into the health budget, which is clearly being misspent as can be seen from our malfunctioning system. The sooner the Opposition parties get into government and introduce a fair and equitable universal health insurance system, the better for the people. The sooner too that the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, leaves the Department, the better for the people. The Labour Party has also proposed reform of the HSE and its proposal shows courage by including removing layers of management and providing for voluntary redundancy and redeployment.

The Government has argued that the Opposition has not put forward realistic proposals, but that is not the truth. We are ready to go into government. We have alternative plans and a clear vision of how the country can, in time, be led out of the trouble it is in at present. We have seen no leadership or sense of direction from the Government. The mandate given by the people to Fianna Fáil in the general election on the basis that it was the best party to run the economy was turned around last week. We only have to look at the state of the economy today to see that banks are being bailed out with billions of euro while our children are being failed and cuts across the system are hurting children, the vulnerable, the weak and the sick. That demonstrates a failed Government. The people said this clearly in the recent local elections. It is time for the Government to go.

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