Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to support the Government's motion of confidence in the Taoiseach.

The Taoiseach has, during the past two years, led a united Government, supported by the majority of Members in this House in implementing courageous policies that have won praise at home and abroad and have set Ireland on the road to economic recovery. Our resolute action and determination to act as one in the common good has offered this country solid government at a time when solidarity and stability were needed more than ever. The measures we are implementing include repair of the banking system, restoring order to the public finances, regaining our competitiveness and creating jobs. Although many of these measures have been unpopular, they have been effective. The economic fightback is on. Because of the steps we have taken our country, led by the Taoiseach, is emerging from recession.

While this may be the age of austerity, it also can be the age of endeavour. The decision last week by the trade unions, SIPTU and IMPACT, to back the Croke Park Agreement means we now have an opportunity to underpin industrial stability and to build economic prosperity. By framing the agreement and urging that it be ratified, the Taoiseach has shown leadership and foresight in the effort to modernise the delivery of our public services. The Labour Party's move to characteristically fence-sit on this important deal and to then welcome the unions' decision to back it shows that party would rather be all things to all people than make decisive calls when needed.

Fine Gael, on the other hand, has moved from a position in which it rejected the public sector wage reductions and efficiency measures to help close the deficit and boost our competitiveness to one in which it urged trade union members to accept the deal. As a Government, our focus is on securing recovery and reclaiming our prosperity. The Government and its supporters have stepped up to the plate and have worked hard and long to get Ireland through this crisis. We can look back to this recession and can say hand on heart as time goes by that we answered these questions with great pride and absolute conviction.

Today, the Government is debating this motion which has arisen following machinations within Fine Gael. We will later get on with running the country. If this debate is to be of any service to the country, the Labour Party will it is hoped use it as an opportunity to tell us its policies. Day after day, week after week, Deputies Gilmore, Burton and others denounce everything. Does anybody know for what they stand? To paraphrase Winston Churchill's comment on Communist Russia - a nation Deputy Gilmore and his old friends in the Workers Party admired so much - the Labour Party's policies are a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. It is easy for the Labour Party to attack Government policy without providing a credible alternative. This debate offers it the opportunity to put up or shut up. If it has solutions then let us hear them. The Government has moved with acknowledged speed to address the fiscal challenge, a way now being followed by many others across Europe. The decisive corrective measures we have implemented for our economy and banking system means we are now well positioned to grow once more. We have weathered the recession. Now, it is time for recovery.

Ireland's recovery is due, in no small measure, to the stability of the Government and the leadership of the Taoiseach. His vision for Ireland is based on integrity and fairness, the primacy of principled politics and the ideals of the founders of the Republic. The Government he heads shoulders its responsibility with courage. We take pride in our efforts to bring about a future steeped in social justice and forged in the promise of enterprise. Unlike the party opposite, the stability of the Government will endure because we put the country's interests first and not our own narrow political self-interest.

On both sides of the House, we must take a road of post-partisanship. The country is recovering and that effort is being led steadfastly by the Taoiseach. The Government will hold firm to its decisions and will see Ireland through recession and back to growth. We will do that with common cause and in the common good.

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