Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Not for North Korea. I question the necessity to resume statements on Government priorities for the year ahead. We have not had a discussion on real priorities. Everything else has been put back, including funding of third level education in respect of which the report has been buried in the HEA. The report on small schools has been buried within the Department and universal health insurance has been mothballed by way of a Green Paper which we will not see for a long time. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, did not even mention the SME crisis last week until Morgan Kelly raised it this week. Suddenly, SMEs represent a real crisis and the Central Bank should look at the issue in terms of debt. We are living in a parallel universe where we were meant to be talking about all of these issues last week, but they did not get discussed. Papers have not been circulated in advance of these discussions.

Why is it thought necessary to again have statements on the Government's priorities for the year ahead given that we had them last week? It is a charade. There is no real hunger from anybody on this side of the House for it. Is there a problem with legislation? I understand it was said at the Whips' meeting that there is a logjam or bottleneck and legislation is not coming through. Last week, we had no legislation and this week it is minimal. We have Second Stage of the Health Service Executive (Financial Matters) Bill and only amendments from the Seanad to the ESB (Electronic Communications Networks) Bill. Next week, the Dáil will not sit. For a full three-week period, the Government will have had no substantive legislative programme. What is happening?

See this speech in context