Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I wish to raise a number of issues relating to the Order of Business. The Order of Business before us is pathetic. What is going on in this Chamber this morning is frankly surreal. People in this country are struggling to survive, want to get back to work and have been hit with a big whack of an increase in Vhi premiums on top of the damage done to their pay packets and incomes this month. More than anything else people want to get things moving again and to see some recovery and hope.

Before Christmas the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, said:

.....we have now reached a point where the Irish people needed political certainty to take them beyond the coming two months. So, we believe it is time to fix a date for a general election in the second half of January 2011.

We were told we were coming back yesterday to deal with the Finance Bill but when we came back we were told it was not only the Finance Bill but that there were four Bills. There are now 21 Bills. Even this morning the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has found another straw at which to clutch to try to prolong the life of the Government. He wants to send the leaders of the Opposition away somewhere on St. Patrick's Day - any excuse to delay the recovery this country needs.

The Taoiseach does not have credibility. He was at a dinner with people from Anglo Irish Bank and they did not discuss the bank. He played golf with the chairman of Anglo Irish Bank and they did not discuss the bank and they had dinner afterwards and discussed lending to small business.

See this speech in context