Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach said he will deal with the motion of no confidence in the normal manner and that he faced them before. Every motion of no confidence in the Government tabled by Fine Gael or the Labour Party for as long as I can recall has been dealt with by the Government immediately. The Taoiseach is running away from the motion of no confidence and does not want to put it to the test. He announced this morning that the former Minister, Deputy Martin, had resigned from Government. A new member of the Government is usually appointed and the motion is put to the Dáil.

The Taoiseach is now doing everything he possibly can to move away from having his case tested in the Dáil and is delaying for as long as possible from having it tested in the country. We heard today that discussions will take place between the Taoiseach and the Green Party on a timetable for the remainder of the Dáil. Can he tell us what discussions have taken place and what the timetable is because all we are hearing from him are vague references to indicative dates and that he will stay on?

We were originally told that the essential Bill was the finance Bill but are now told it is the Climate Change Response Bill. The Taoiseach will find every excuse and Bill somebody wants to ask him for and will elevate them to being something of a huge national importance in order to get a next week or month in office. Meanwhile, he is simply holding up the country's recovery.

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