Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on this important issue.

In the context of what previous speakers have said, I have some advice for the Tánaiste, for what it is worth. The Tánaiste went Chile to utter his chilling words about what might happen at home. We heard lots of chilling words from him when he was in Opposition. Indeed, they were very chilling, some of them were very nasty and were downright insulting to the then Taoiseach, but that is for another day. I wish to be conciliatory in what I say to the Tánaiste. I accept that the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have a responsibility to Europe because Ireland has the Presidency, which I welcome, but we should use it to our advantage.

We must remember that they are all coming into our parlour. We are not meeting them in Chile, Germany or France. They will be in our parlour, in the nice comfortable surroundings of Dublin Castle, a venue that has panache and may give the impression of a wealthy country. That is the time to raise it, nicely and calmly. It is the place to draw attention to what the Tánaiste said in Chile and to point out that he got a mandate from the electorate to raise the issues of the promissory note and bank debt. This is crisis point and the time for talking is over. The time for insults and for denigrating our situation in Ireland is gone. I listened to an eminent German economist last night and could not believe how frank and honest he was. I do not know his pedigree but I thought he was going to say something along the lines of "let them eat cake".

He was asking, bluntly, what kind of people we are to pay this debt and how much more do we have to pay. Are we to adore the lords from Europe? It is time to put the foot down. If the Taoiseach is not capable of doing it I beg the Tánaiste to do it. He showed that steeliness when he was in opposition. His own colleagues are asking, and saying to me in private, where is the Tánaiste we knew. What happened to him? My own former party had a similar experience with the former Taoiseach, Brian Cowen. We could see steeliness and robustness and we were very disappointed with his performance in government.

The electorate is disheartened and disenchanted. They want hope. It may be, before it is too late, that the Tánaiste can give them some ray of hope that he respects the mandate they gave him. Will he honour that mandate and do what he promised, which is to speak up for Ireland and get some recognition of the people's misery and penury and the futility of going forward with further austerity? Must they be made to take up the debts of gangsters, chancers and rogue bankers? That is nothing short of what they were. The Tánaiste knows that. He treated them with indignation when he was on this side of the House. Why the change? Are the civil servants completely and utterly in charge of the Government? I am delighted the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has come to the House for the end of this debate. Have civil servants taken the Government in, hook, line and sinker, and are they writing their speeches, training them how to talk and giving them the politicalspeak when they go out in public? The Ministers must assert themselves, look into their hearts and speak for the people of Ireland.

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