Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The motion before us is one of the most cynical examples of political gamesmanship seen in this House. Fianna Fáil accuses the Government of failing to meet its budget commitments in the health service because it claims it will impact on patients and services to disabled people and the elderly. One must wonder whether Fianna Fáil Members were thinking of these same people when they sabotaged our economy or were they too busy partying on to heed the warning signals about our overheated property market, reluctant to restrain the boardroom excesses of their golfing buddies in the bank? They were more interested in keeping the till ringing with stamp duty than in sustainability for the economy. Were they thinking about the people when they tied our fate to that of a bank that was already bust and negotiated a bad deal which they then said could not be renegotiated?

When Fianna Fáil left office in February last year it left behind it a budget deficit of €22.4 billion, 444,000 people unemployed, a banking collapse that ended up costing the taxpayer €64 billion and our economic sovereignty surrendered because the country could no longer pay its bills. One can only marvel at the sheer neck of the 19 Fianna Fáil men on the benches opposite.

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