Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)

I want to draw attention to some of the remarks made by the Deputies from the Technical Group. No truer title could be put on the group because one would have to be a genius to figure out what it stands for.

One Deputy advocated the sale of the entire company and another said we should sell none of it and if it was sold, the workers should go out on strike. The two Deputies in question were laughing in the corner and thought it was hilarious that the Government of this sovereign State is effectively bankrupt.

On the day the Taoiseach was elected and Deputy Eamonn Gilmore became Tánaiste, the Technical Group, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin gave a commitment to the people that they would be responsible in their opposition. Today the Taoiseach laid down a challenge to them to be responsible in Opposition about coming up with ideas for bailing out the country from the EU and IMF deal faster.

Since the start of this Dáil session we have had opposition for opposition's sake, no credible alternatives, no costings and refusals to everything. The model advocated by the Technical Group primarily is the model operating in Greece and other European countries. Where are they now? They are in a worse situation than we are in.

There is another element in this Dáil which would like to see a return to the policies of Lenin and Stalin, and we know how well they worked. Some people in this Chamber offer us a one-way ticket to the Stone Age. I am glad the electorate will not be conned. We had a lecture from Sinn Féin on neo-partionism that what is good on one side of the Border should not apply on the other side of the Border. The country is bankrupt and the Government is trying to come up with an alternative to the EU-IMF deal and get us out of it sooner. Part of that entails using State assets for the good of the State. It is not like the sale of Eircom, which was a fire sale on which many small investors lost a considerable amount of money.

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