Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I will not waste the time remaining. I ask the Acting Chairman not to interrupt me because that makes it even worse for me. In a debate as important as this, it is a sad reflection on our democracy that we have only six or seven minutes to make our contribution in the national Parliament.

I challenge any comer on the other side of the House to deny that whatever submissions were made in the past by the Government, they were questioned by the European institutions. That is why they have come back with this proposal. They have questioned Government submissions over the past six months and over the past six years. They have pointed out repeatedly that the Government did not live up to the Stability and Growth Pact guidelines and had no intention of so doing. If Members opposite want to point the finger at the Opposition benches in regard to the current crisis, I remind them that the Government has been continuously in power for the last 13 years, and for the past 25 years with the interruption of a mere two and a half years. That two and a half year period was the only time in the past 25 years that all of the guidelines laid down by the European institutions were observed by Government. That Administration could leave office with pride on that basis.

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