Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

I am the last speaker on behalf of the Labour Party. I wish to put on the record the Labour Party's full endorsement of the contribution made by its leader, Deputy Gilmore.

The Labour Party recognises reality; it recognised it in the past and over the last two and a half years. We called decisions as we saw them and, sadly, we were right and Fianna Fáil and the Green Party in Government were wrong. That series of errors has brought us to our current sorry state. We recognise the plight in which we now find ourselves. The disastrous policies of the Fianna Fáil Party over the last 13 years have betrayed the Republic, of which we are all so proud. The Fianna Fáil Party has come to an extraordinary point in history, in that its legacy for the future will haunt it for generations. It has betrayed the Republic.

The Labour Party will stand by the Republic and help to have it rebuilt in a difficult and hard time. We recognise the journey that must be travelled, the responsibilities we face and the macroeconomic context in which the economy finds itself. Deputy Gilmore has already said as much, not just in this debate but repeatedly. We dispute, and we did so at the time, the right of a failed Administration that is facing defeat in the ballot box to tie the hands of destiny for future generations beyond the next election. As the Fine Gael Party leader said, we met with the representatives of the IMF and the EU institutions and discussed with them our commitment to the restoration of sound finances in this country and our refusal to be tied in the future by the poor negotiations of an outgoing Administration that is morally and intellectually bankrupt.

I remind Members that it was the rainbow coalition Government in 1997 that left an unprecedented legacy of prosperity, competitiveness and growth that no previous incoming Administration ever had in the history of this State. It squandered it. Ours was the most competitive economy in Europe in 1997. We were earning our way in the world in a way of which Seán Lemass would have been proud. He once said this country is not owed a living by the rest of the world, but this Government has beggared the country to the extent that we are depending on this aid and assistance on difficult terms to rescue ourselves. We will do our duty in the future, as we have done in the past. I hope the Irish people, particularly this generation, will realise that the people on the other side of this House, who proclaim their virtue of republicanism, have destroyed the Republic that was proclaimed in 1916.

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