Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. It is a good and important day for the people, having voted 70 days ago, to have a Government coming into place this evening. While people have spoken of the 70 days since the last election, I genuinely believe the country has not had an active Government for six months. If one thinks back to last November, there was talk of an election at the time and most of the Cabinet members were on an election footing. It did not happen and we continued on into the Christmas period. Since January, however, all Ministers have been involved in preparing for elections, running election campaigns or dealing with the aftermath of the election. Ministers have not been active in their jobs to the extent that they normally would over the past six months. Consequently, when the Ministers take up their posts and arrive at their desks at 8 a.m. tomorrow, or next Monday morning or whenever, there will be a considerable number of issues to be dealt with, and I believe this will emerge soon.

My main concern is that this Government has the potential to be the most right-wing Government Ireland has ever seen in my lifetime. It is a Fine Gael Government and most of the Independents are former members of Fine Gael or were appointed to the Seanad by a Fine Gael Taoiseach. It is therefore substantially a Fine Gael-type Government. We know the difference between Fine Gael and the rest of us - they are a more right-wing party and they want tax cuts.

Fianna Fáil's short document was not a programme for government. We have seen the Government's big document circulating here today, which is a programme for Government. We are not a Government party or a party to the Government.

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