James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

The leader of the Government has presided over the greatest abuse of the elderly, the sick, the vulnerable, the young and the unemployed in the history of this State, both as Minister for Finance and Taoiseach. We did not need these reports to tell us what we already knew, namely, that the Government was guilty of the most outrageous cronyism, mismanagement and attempted cover-up that this country has ever seen. Nevertheless, the rubber stamp was important to give validity to what was common knowledge. It is, and always has been, a sick joke that the man who was primarily responsible for the mistakes of his Government should be voted captain of the ship, which is attempting to find its way out of the financial storm.

The banking reports label the current fiasco as a homemade crisis. While this is primarily meant to close the escape hatch for the Taoiseach to blame Lehman Brothers and international factors for the fall-out, it also gives a feel of the contempt the authors of the report seem to have for the judgment of the Taoiseach.

When I see the impact the Taoiseach's actions have had in my constituency of Longford and Westmeath, I see it as a testament to the forbearance of the Irish people that he is here today to fight this confidence motion. The queues at my clinics are crowded with decent hard-working people, whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed by the actions of the Taoiseach. I feel incredible anger that he has the nerve even to attempt to justify his actions. Has he even the smallest idea of what it is like for people to lose their employment, their homes, their children's chance of going to college, their health and all for no reason other than that they worked hard and trusted the Government? Does he feel the weight of their suffering on his shoulders and the scales of justice tilting towards retribution? How can he sleep at night, knowing the havoc that his policy of government for the few at the expense of the many has brought to hard-working families, who never saw any of the benefits of the Celtic tiger, but nonetheless were content with their lot and who had their lives set up?

As usual, the Taoiseach waffled here this afternoon, blaming the usual suspects on the international scene for our woes. He said he did not want history re-written. Every time he opens his mouth, this is exactly what he does. If he had any decency, he would have resigned months ago and not put the House through a time-wasting exercise this evening. Knowing that he will win by strength of numbers unless some of his backbenchers or independents decide that enough is enough makes any vote of confidence a complete farce. In any other country, he would be facing retribution for his actions.

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