Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Ceann Comhairle on his election. To be Ceann Comhairle of this House is a great honour. I know he will carry out that duty with great distinction, as he has conducted his role as a Deputy over the years.

I was not minded to speak in this debate but perhaps my physical proximity to Deputy Ross was the catalyst for me to feel I should speak. The election is over and we do not need to hear re-hashes. The people have spoken. That is not a cliché. The 158 people assembled here have been entrusted by a vote of the people to make important decisions. I do not think that over the duration of this particular Dáil I will repeat the next sentence too often: I agree with Deputy Pearse Doherty that the issue of Dáil reform, important as it is, was not the issue that people talked about to me at the doors of Wexford.

The first constitutional duty of this House is to elect a government. We have no quibble about the selection of the Members of this House. That is the people’s choice and prerogative. Our job is to accept that and get on with providing a stable government to address all the issues. The Labour Party stood up in 2011 and did that. The then leader of the party said that we would face enormous difficulties and that the next time we met we would be wading through a sea of placards because we had been briefed by the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA and the Central Bank. We knew the economic morass the country was in and we stepped up to the plate. I will not argue the case for Labour again. The people have made their choice. It is now for others to stand up for the Republic, stand into that breach and provide a government. The notion that somehow there are parties in this House that are exempt from that responsibility until they reach some magic quotient of numbers is not true and it is not acceptable for people to talk about crises or difficulties or people’s terrible wounds without being willing to share the responsibility of providing a solution.

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