Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I join others in congratulating and commending everybody who took part in the Easter 1916 commemorations. One moment struck home for me on Sunday, 27 March, outside the GPO. The words of the Army's head chaplain rang true when he said:

Another day begins. Give us the courage to step on new ground, eyes young again with energy and dreams. Help us to believe in beginnings, to listen to the voices that challenge and to sing a new song for Ireland.

He set out in very clear terms what that new song might be: respecting social justice, both unity and diversity, and respect for our environment.

I commend the Taoiseach and his colleagues on the work they did in the process of engaging with the Independents and our own party. To date, however, the outcome in that 109 page report presented last night does not sing to me with a vision for Ireland. Unfortunately, such a minority Government, be it led by Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, has neither the numbers or the coherence that answers the call made outside the GPO for a new song that might inspire us.

We have a duty on all sides to try to create a Thirty-second Dáil which manages to get through the 100th anniversary of the First Dáil with a Government which is able to work over the intervening two and a half years. I listened to what Deputy Micheál Martin said with respect. I commend Fianna Fáil on a constructive negotiation process, but I disagree with what Deputy Martin said, that it was not yet conclusive. I do not see how the current negotiations with the current arrangements and configuration will lead to any conclusive Government. I would like to hear in detail from Fianna Fáil Members how they think that will work They got 43 votes for Taoiseach today, not one additional one, while Fine Gael got 50 plus Deputy Lowry's. That is the reality of what happened here today.

If we are not to see a Thirty-third Dáil before the centenary of the First Dáil, we all have an obligation and a duty to consider how this could be done differently. If it is not possible for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to work together, perhaps there is some other national form of government that might possibly work. I listened to Deputy Broughan and Deputy Catherine Murphy saying, and I listened to Deputy Catherine Connolly saying privately earlier, if she does not mind me saying so, that maybe the smaller parties and Independents should meet together without Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael to consider what the options might be. Perhaps we should not do that in Government Buildings but in some independent place of our own choosing in our own time.

The current arrangements are not working. Something needs to change. We all have a responsibility to answer that Easter 1916 commemoration call to sing a slightly different song of Ireland.

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