Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

There is a flaw in the Taoiseach's logic. If the mandate to govern comes from the Dáil, then surely it should come from a full Dáil and therefore it should not come from a Dáil where, for the first time in a long time, there are three seats which have not been filled.

Every time the Taoiseach is asked this question, he has a way of dodging it; he has told us that the Government has not made a decision on this. He is making it sound as though the right of people to be represented in Dáil Éireann is some kind of a form of political patronage that can be doled out by Fianna Fáil and that a by-election is something that can be handed out like a national lottery grant. It is not like that. People have a right to vote in elections and to have their full representation here. We are in a ludicrous situation such that if we were to ask the Taoiseach if he will have an election for the Dublin mayor, he would find every reason under the sun to give us a vague answer rather than commit himself to a date for that election lest he might have to have the by-elections on the same date.

There is a long overdue referendum on children's rights and every time he will be asked when he will set a date for that referendum, he will give some other vague answer, again in case he is pinned down and he might have to set a date. If he sets a date for the referendum on children's rights, he will have to hold the three by-elections.

I have rarely seen any Taoiseach or a Head of any Government anywhere running so scared of the public as the Taoiseach is now. He should set the date for the by-elections and allow the people of Donegal, Dublin South and Waterford to have their right, a right that was fought for by people who have gone before us, to have their full representation in the Dáil and to accept the verdict of the people. When we hold these three by-elections, we can then put to the test whether the Taoiseach has a mandate in the Dáil to continue governing.

See this speech in context