Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I too congratulate the Ceann Comhairle on his election, as well as those Deputies elected for the first time and those who have been re-elected.

All of us have to stand humble in the face of the judgment of the people. We spent several weeks campaigning on our different policies, priorities and political records, but now the judgment has been made. Our job is to act as swiftly as possible on that judgment and to respond to the concerns, the needs and priorities expressed by the people, both in terms of political reform and the pressing issues which face vast numbers of our citizens. The prerequisite for us moving to address those issues is the formation of a Government. Much as I would like for the parties of the left to be in a position to form a Government, we are not in a position to do so. That is a campaign which we must continue, namely to convince people of our policies and our priorities. Of course, we will continue to do that.

Accordingly, the responsibility to move swiftly to form a Government lies with those in a position to do so. One judgment made by the people, which to my mind is beyond dispute, is that they have asked us to move beyond Civil War factional politics. Instead, they want issue-based politics. Those parties, whose histories lie in Civil War divisions but where no real substantial differences exist on issues or policies, have a responsibility not to allow tribal or factional differences delay the formation of a Government, so that we can move on to the issues which need to be addressed urgently.

For our part, as a small part of this Dáil, the Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit group is willing to talk to anybody about addressing those issues. However, realistically, we do not believe we have the same approach to addressing them as do those parties which have the numbers and are in a position to form the majority. We will do so on committees, whether it is to do with Dáil reform or elsewhere and we will work with and discuss with others ways of addressing those issues. Now, however, a Government must be formed so we can move on to that discussion.

While a combination of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael is not the Government I would want, they have a responsibility now to explain why they cannot form a Government or move on to form one.

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