Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

I move:

"That Dáil Éireann:

— recognises the urgent need for the establishment of economic and political stability;

— believes that an accelerated budgetary process would contribute to economic stability;

— notes that Dáil Éireann is currently scheduled to sit for just eight days during the month of December;

— notwithstanding anything in Standing Order 26 resolves that the Dáil should, if necessary, sit on each working day during December to deal with the budgetary process; and

— agrees that the 2011 Budget, and the legislative measures to give effect to it, should be presented to, and disposed of, by the House before the end of December 2010."

I propose to share time with Deputies Michael Creed, Denis Naughten, Shane McEntee, John O'Mahony and Bernard Durkan. In this motion we express the view that we will facilitate the Government to conclude all the necessary budgetary business before Christmas. We are doing this because if what happened in Ireland happened in a private company, the first move would be to change the management team. The same rules should apply to the country. The people should be consulted and given an opportunity to change the management team by electing a new Government. This should be done in January, as stated by the Green Party. The Fianna Fáil component of the Government should not prevent this by deliberately delaying the legislation underpinning the forthcoming budget. I refer to the social welfare Bill and the finance Bill. I understand the Government intends bringing forward the debate on the social welfare Bill, as it did last year, to the day after the budget and subsequent days. Fine Gael will facilitate the Government to introduce the finance Bill before Christmas also. We will do so by agreeing to sit on whatever days are necessary to enact the finance Bill in its totality before Christmas. We will do so whether the sitting days are in plenary session in this Chamber or Committee Stage is taken in the committee rooms.

There is plenty of time to bring forward the finance Bill between now and Christmas. The debate in negotiations with European Central Bank, the IMF and the European Commission has been so prolonged that the preparatory work for the finance Bill is ready. While there may be some drafting necessary, there is no reason everything cannot be concluded in time for the Christmas recess.

We agree it is necessary to enact the social welfare Bill before 1 January because the measures in the Bill will date from 1 January. However, we do not agree that it is necessary to enact the finance Bill but, seeing as this is the Government's position, we are prepared to facilitate it. In respect of financial resolutions, the website of the Department of Finance states: "If there are Financial Resolutions under the 1927 Provisional Collection of Taxes Act in the Budget, the Second Stage of the Finance Bill must be passed in Dáil Éireann within 84 days of Budget Day and the Bill must be signed by the President within 4 months of Budget Day." Once the financial resolutions are passed on budget day, the Government is not constrained to rush the finance Bill. The finance resolutions are passed on budget day and there is a four-month lifespan before the President must sign the finance Bill into law.

The finance resolutions survive a dissolution of the Dáil. All other items before the Dáil die on the dissolution of the House but not the finance Bill. It is not necessary to enact the Second Stage of the finance Bill for 84 days after budget day. It does not have to be signed into law for 100 days. There are precedents for this. One in which Fine Gael was involved was when the 1982 Government came into power on 14 December. The finance Bill was not taken until the first week in April. If the Government insists on passing the finance Bill, Fine Gael will facilitate it by doing so before Christmas. We do not agree that this is necessary and we do not want the processing of the finance Bill to be used as an excuse by this failed Government to delay an election which is now so necessary.

In view of this and as the Government disintegrates, as Ministers leave the field of battle, and as the Taoiseach looks increasingly like Macbeth in the last act, surrounded by enemies, abandoned by friends but pledged to go down fighting, is it not time to take this Dáil out of its pain and let us have an election early in the new year? Let us give the people an opportunity for a fresh start, an opportunity to elect a new Government, rebuild our shattered confidence, our shattered lives, our shattered hopes and dreams and step forward into 2011 with hope, confidence and optimism with new men and women in charge committed to change, to rebuilding this Republic and to taking our people forward with a restored economy to better times.

The most extraordinary thing that happened today was the interview by the Minister for Justice and Law Reform when he announced his retirement from politics. I wish him well in his retirement. His interview on the "Today with Pat Kenny" show was extraordinary. He described, in effect, how the Government had been mugged by the European institutions, dragged like victims, unknowing what the agenda was, to sign an agreement which was negotiated by civil servants and in which the Government played no part. Was there ever a better reason for sacking this Administration than that apologia presented by the Minister for Justice and Law Reform? If work needs to be done between now and Christmas, we will not support the Government in voting that agenda through but we will support the Government in providing the time for it to do that work. The Government should take that opportunity and let us go at home at Christmas with the intention of the Dáil not coming back in January and for the Taoiseach to call an election in the first week in January because this has to end. It is painful to look at this Administration at present. It is time for change if there was ever time for change.

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