Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is important to acknowledge that this is not a perfect Government. It has had a difficult birth and will face many challenges, but it is our duty to try to make it work. It will appear strange to many that the old ways of doing business can no longer stand. A Minister can no longer bring any new law into this House, apply the Whip to it and ram it through the Dáil. Instead, the Dáil and the Government must work in a co-operative and consultative approach, trying to build alliances and securing support.

On the issue of climate change, we will have to deal with the whole political spectrum from Deputy Eamon Ryan to Deputy Danny Healy-Rae and everything in between, and that will not be easy. The Government faces huge challenges in health, housing, development and international threats as well as the threat of climate change. I am here to try to make it work with others, as a team, and to navigate through these challenges. I am in this House 19 and a half years at this stage. I spent most of my time on the Opposition benches.

During that time, I could count on one hand the Ministers who were prepared to engage constructively with Members of the Opposition, although these Members of the Opposition wanted to come forward and try to provide solutions. I will work with anyone in this House, no matter what his or her background and no matter from what side of the House, who is prepared to work constructively to deal with those challenges.

We do not have the solutions. We should not have all the solutions. This is about working together to deliver for this country as a whole. The Government will try to turn the tide and bring about a real recovery to provincial towns and rural Ireland. It is about bringing life back into these small towns. The lifeblood of our economy is dependent on those small towns. It is easy to look the other way and say it does not matter in the overall scheme of things because it is only a matter of one small town, but collectively these towns matter as much as the cities and they drive as much business and trade.

In his contribution earlier, Deputy Alan Kelly said that some of these policies had been seen before. Some of them are Labour Party policies, some are Fine Gael policies, some are Fianna Fáil policies, some are Green Party policies and some are policies from the Independents. I thank everyone who has contributed to this programme for Government, everyone who has provided an input. They have tried to engage constructively during the past 70 days and put their stamp on it. Let us all try to work together to deliver on it for all our constituents and for the country as a whole. We now have a partnership agreement across this House. Let us try to make it work.

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