Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I congratulate the new officeholders. They will make a valuable contribution to the Government and I wish them well. I look forward to working with them. We all know that the task of being a Minister in the current circumstances is a difficult one. It is one that is necessary and essential and it has to be performed in the national and public interest, and that is what has to come first.

The House was divided earlier this afternoon by the intervention of the Labour Party on the allocation of time for this discussion. It was suggested that there was insufficient time to debate the appointment of the Ministers. While some useful contributions were made from the benches opposite, having listened to some of the contributions, there was a sufficient allocation of time for this debate. The parties opposite have complained that we have been too long in government, but the big problem with them is that they have been far too long in Opposition. When one examines the contributions that are being made, many speakers opposite are stuck in a groove, the same old groove-----

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