Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I take very seriously the injunction of the Taoiseach last night that each of us in this Chamber must take responsibility for the positions we hold, particularly as they relate to the budget. As we speak in the calm of the Chamber, there is considerable chaos outside. The television news is full of colleagues of the Minister threatening barefisted quarrel at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting and according to the national broadcaster, Ministers are at loggerheads and pointing fingers. Meanwhile, the Governor of the Central Bank has indicated that the Irish banks are for sale and NAMA has not produced the results that had been hoped for.

We are entitled to assurance from the Minister in these circumstances that there is the capacity on the Government side to pass the budget. If there are injunctions and requests for co-ordination, co-operation and responsibility on this side of the House, we are entitled to see that response from the Government. I have never seen in my days, not just in here but watching politics as a whole, such irresponsible action as I saw from the Green Party yesterday. In the current climate, the Green Party portentously telling us that it wants to pass the budget, publish the four-year plan and complete the negotiations with the IMF and EU is irreconcilable to the announcement it made thereafter. All its members had to do was keep their mouths shut until 8 December but they chose not to do so.

The Minister must give us some assurance on what he means by the "budgetary process". It is unconscionable that the Government expects this House, in the current climate and amidst the actions outside, to continue into the early spring as would be the normal timeline for drafting, publishing, scrutinising and enacting a Finance Bill. We cannot do so and we cannot put this House on an election footing over 12 or 14 weeks in the current climate. The Minister must be honest with the House about the capacity of his Department to produce a Finance Bill in the wake of a budget if it is passed in this House. Otherwise the request to the Opposition is not meaningful.

I agree with my colleague, Deputy Brian Hayes. He asked that if we accept there is to be a general election, why has the Opposition not been consulted and involved in discussions about the negotiations with the IMF and the EU? If the Government is genuinely asking for co-operation from this side, we should know what is going on, what is realistic and what can be expected in the discussions with the IMF and European Union which will set a framework for the fiscal and budgetary situation for at least the lifetime of a new Government.

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