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

On behalf of the Fianna Fáil Party I will outline our approach to this vote and to the broader issue of how our country is to be governed during the Thirty-second Dáil. Today potentially represents - I use the word "potentially" noting the absence of the Independent Alliance, but that may change in the coming minutes - a major turning point for Irish democracy. It marks a decisive shift away from a Government with absolute power to control our Parliament. In many ways it is a new beginning, and it presents challenges and opportunities to every person who was given the honour of being elected to Dáil Éireann. It brings with it new rules and new expectations.

The result of February's election was unprecedented. Fianna Fáil won the support of over half a million people. We had the highest increase in vote numbers, percentage of votes and extra seats won. This progress was seen in every part of the country. However, while this is a strong mandate, we accept that this is a diverse Dáil and we respect the mandate of others. My party presented a very clear platform to the people, and since the election we have worked every day to try to implement as much of that platform as possible.

The election represented an overwhelming rejection of the Fine Gael-Labour Party Government, its policies and its hyper-political behaviour. That is why we have sought to completely replace that Government. We sought to secure a Government led by Fianna Fáil with the inclusion and support of others. This was the only possible way of removing Fine Gael from Government. On three separate occasions we put this option to the House, and on each of those three occasions no party and no Independent Member supported the alternative. Those in the House who try to lecture us about facilitating a Fine-Gael-led minority Government need to remember that they refused point blank to vote for the only way of preventing this.

When we last voted on nominations for Taoiseach, there came a point at which we had to move on and consider alternative approaches. We did this because, unlike Sinn Féin, the hard left alliance, the Labour Party and others, we believe it is the duty of all Deputies to be constructive and we reject their approach of seeking to maintain a model of a dominant Government versus total opposition.

As the House knows, we entered into lengthy discussions with the Fine Gael Party concerning the formation of a minority Government. These negotiations were not easy, and they confirmed the serious and substantive policy differences between parties. We believe Fine Gael remains committed to the idea that the outgoing Government's policies were correct, and it is reluctant to accept the need for a significantly more progressive approach in many areas. For example, there was near-total resistance to any major initiative that would tackle the massive increase in waiting times within the acute hospital system. Initiatives to address the social and economic damage of household debt received equally strong resistance. While the agreement does contain a commitment to restart efforts to build real North-South co-operation on services and policies, we see no understanding of the deep damage caused by five years of disengagement from Northern Ireland by a Government that is a co-guarantor of agreements that remain only partly implemented.

Just as important, five years of dominating the Labour Party and aggressively spinning everything has left a deep impact. As we saw yesterday, Fine Gael's concept of partnership does not yet extend to agreeing in advance about media briefings. The difficulties encountered in reaching the short arrangement published earlier this week confirmed that no credible coalition between the parties was possible. Such a Government would have been all about sharing the spoils of power and not an honest partnership with an agreed action programme.

The arrangement we have reached is similar in scope and duration to models followed in many other countries. As we said when we first proposed the idea of a minority Government, they are a regular feature of successful European democracies with high standards of governance. The confidence and supply arrangement allows the Government to achieve and retain office for a defined period, enables it to administer agreed public policy and ensures that it is funded.

However, it leaves the majority in Dáil Éireann to decide on the vast majority of legislative and other policies. This confidence and supply approach is today in operation in a number of European countries. The confidence and supply arrangement covers broad principles of policy and is comparable to a full programme for Government. It sets certain conditions on policy areas where Government is primarily responsible for introducing measures. I should have said it is not comparable to a full programme for Government. Fianna Fáil retains the right and ability to seek to create majorities for proposals outside of those agreed. We retain the right and the intention to actively scrutinise the work of Ministers and to propose resolutions seeking new policies and criticising existing ones. Fundamentally, it is up to the Government to come here and win debates in order to pass many measures and it is the Government's duty to allow this Parliament to play a full and active role in the development and enactment of policy.

The agreement covers three budget cycles, subject to an overriding framework. This framework requires that Ireland achieves the reasonable fiscal targets most parties accepted during the election. This will demand restrained budgeting which will see a significant fall in the relative size of the national debt. Where there is space for new measures, the weighting must be towards improving services, with a minimum ratio of 2 to 1 in favour of service improvements over tax cuts. Within the tax cuts, there must be a decisive shift towards a more progressive approach and the regressive policy of abolishing the USC during this Dáil will not be pursued. If the Government implements the agreement, it will allow important but sustainable relief weighted to medium and low-income families.

In terms of specific policy areas, there are important measures, but again it does not seek to be a comprehensive statement of policies for this Dáil. In each of our priority areas for delivering a recovery which is felt by all, there are provisions which will make a big difference. These include employment, homelessness, housing, training, education, health, urban and community development, tackling crime and strengthening the recovery. The people across rural Ireland know a two-tier recovery is in place and far more has to be done to address the issues impacting on people who live in rural Ireland.

In housing, immediate action on rent allowance and the housing assistance payment will prevent more people becoming homeless. There are commitments to build more local authority houses and to introduce an affordable housing scheme.

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