Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I thank the Acting Chairman and my colleague, Deputy Timmins, for allowing me some time. I have no confidence in our present Taoiseach, his party or his Green Party colleagues. Having listened to the Green Party personnel some minutes ago, it is clear to me they are much more committed to wildlife, bogs and dogs than to the 440,000 people who have no jobs.

From the first day I met him, then Minister for Health, the Taoiseach has proved himself to be incompetent in whatever job he held. He failed to do anything about the health service and when he left it all he could do was refer to it as Angola. In this context he was supposed to deliver €5 million to Monaghan General Hospital but all he did was promise €500,000 while, at the same time, he was giving all sorts of money to hospitals in his own constituency.

The fact that he still allows an Independent Deputy, Mary Harney, to hold such an important ministry raises further questions regarding his ability. When there was plenty of money available she encouraged young people to train in specific services such as physiotherapy but when they finished their course no jobs were available as she had not planned how to use them even though such jobs were badly needed. Now, the first services to be removed are those for the elderly and the disabled. Only yesterday I received a telephone call to say that day care services were being curtailed at St. Mary's Hospital, Castleblayney.

The Taoiseach built all his structures on the building boom and this has now left the situation in a total mess. Today, 39 families in Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan, are left with a sewerage system switched off because their builder did not pay the ESB for the power to run the necessary sewerage pumps. Would the Taoiseach or any of his Ministers like to live on that housing estate in weather conditions such as today's?

Last week two important banking reports were published, instigated by the Government. These state clearly that the present banking system conditions were very much Government related rather than created by the international community. The reports specifically advised that decisions made by the then Minister for Finance, now the Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, had serious implications for the entire economic downfall of our country. There was the then Minister's failure to control the building boom, his failure to control the regulator and, above all, his failure to deal with the banking outrage. How could the Taoiseach sit down with the board of Anglo Irish Bank a short time before it had to be bailed out and not know there was something seriously wrong? The Taoiseach and his Government have left a legacy for the next generation which it will never forget.

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