Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)

Let me start by congratulating the Minister, Deputy Coveney, on his well deserved appointment. I also congratulate the Minister, Deputy Deenihan, and the Minister of State, Deputy McGinley, who have just left the House. I also commend my colleague, Deputy Cowen, on a very inspiring and rousing maiden speech.

During last week's debate on the formation of the Government, I raised a number of questions to which I have still not got answers. I pointed out that the tangible, measurable and quantifiable promises in the Fine Gael manifesto - a reduction of 20 Deputies, a reduction to 12 Ministers of State and the abolition of no less than 145 quangos - for some reason failed to make the transition from the Fine Gael manifesto to the programme for Government. They have disappeared into some sort of Bermuda triangle, which is regrettable and the people are entitled to know what happened to those proposals.

The Government was in no rush to send me a copy of the programme for Government, but I eventually obtained a copy and looked through it last night. I counted no less than 38 reviews in a 64-page document. Having said that, there are some aspects of the programme for Government that I welcome, particularly in the banking area. However, the proposals I have in mind, namely the decision by the Government apparently to stop the transfer of further loans to NAMA and its decision to wean the banks off emergency funding as a prelude to slowing down the deleveraging process in the disposal of non-core assets, while welcome, are of course contingent on the agreement of the EU and the ECB. If that agreement is not forthcoming, they are not worth the paper on which they are written. Nevertheless I agree with the policy. In view of the discounts being applied by NAMA to loans, the transfer of another of €16.5 billion worth of loans each of less than €20 million would have a devastating effect on the banks' balance sheets. Worse would be a fire sale of non-core assets in the short term, which would have a shattering impact on banks' balance sheets. I wish the Government the very best of luck in persuading the EU and the ECB to go along with those policies because if they do not, the policies are null and void.

I briefly looked at the section of the programme dealing with the areas of defence and justice. I was struck not by the concrete proposals, but by the lack of concrete proposals. For example, I cannot understand how we will have a stronger and more efficient Garda service if the Government will reduce the public sector by 25,000. I well recall that during the previous Fine Gael-Labour Government the number of gardaí fell and it looks like we are heading that way again. Before the general election Fine Gael proposed a very fundamental change in our policy on neutrality, namely the discarding of the UN resolution aspect of the triple-lock. The Labour Party opposed that and claimed that it would rip up Ireland's policy of military neutrality. I searched from page 1 to page 64 of the programme for Government and found no reference to it; the conflict has not been resolved.

I wish to comment on the Government's decision to amalgamate the Departments of Justice and Law Reform and Defence. The Minister, Deputy Shatter, said he was surprised to get two big Departments and it sends out a very bad message to the people in the Army who have put their lives on the line to save some of the poorest people in the planet over many years, that their Department is now subsumed as a kind of adjunct to the Department of Justice and Law Reform.

On prison places, the programme promises to review the decision to build a new prison at Thornton Hall with a view to considering alternatives. What does that mean? I recall that the previous Fine Gael-Labour Government did not build an extra prison cell. We now have this vague commitment, despite the old guff we hear from the new Minister, Deputy Quinn, about interning gangland criminals etc. I believe this is just more empty talk from the Labour Party. Over the next four or five years, or however long the Government survives, we will see a return to the programme of non-provision of extra prison spaces, despite the tough talk.

Last week I wished the new Government well; it is in the interests of every citizen that it does well. However, I want to put it on notice that while we will be a constructive Opposition, we will be a robust Opposition and we have no notion or intention of being marginalised or going away anywhere. We will be here, will be vocal and will hold the Government to account.

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