Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Listening to the debate one would imagine there was some monopoly on compassion and concern on that side of the House. The reality is everyone here has a similar mandate. We all represent the same people. We all strive to do the best we can by the people who put us here. There are people here who see the only way in which they can express their concern is through condemnation and outrage. This is the type of thinking that has seen the emergence of forces throughout the Continent and in the US which are wholly inimical to the type of country and society to which most of us in the House aspire. We have to move on from the politics of anger and start to talk about the real issues that face us.

I was a member of the previous Government and we tried to manage the public finances and make cuts. Every cut was opposed by people on the other side of the House. When we tried to introduce employment measures we were treated with disdain and told they would never work, but we see the truth is that by taking a careful approach we did deliver more people at work. We did not create the perfect society, we certainly did not, and we have a long way to go on this, and we have a housing challenge and challenges in education and health, and we all know about them, but the purpose of the House is to come here together to try to resolve the issues.

Teddy Roosevelt made a fine speech about true citizenship, drawing a distinction between the critic and the person who acts. He recognised it is not the critic to whom we owe the credit, the critic who tries to drag down the strong man and criticises the one who stumbles. It is to the doer, the person who gets into the arena whose face is marred by sweat and blood and effort, to whom we must give credit. The truth is that when it came to forming a Government, many of those in the House who are loudest in their clamour for change in society sat on their hands. They were not the ones who would step into the arena and take on the opprobrium of making changes in our society. We did. To be fair, in the area of Garda enforcement we are seeing the consequences of having whistleblower legislation and having independent Garda authorities. We are seeing stones turned over and we do not like what we see, but we cannot attribute the blame to Ministers who have put in place the changes which make it possible. We need to grow up and not pounce on every little misspoken word but look at the bigger picture and the direction in which we are trying to take the country, which is why I believe support for the Government is absolutely correct, because the alternative on offer on the other side of the House simply offers no prospects for our future.

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