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

There was truth in the words expressed earlier by the Taoiseach in respect of the great merits of hard work in a job that is worth doing. The Taoiseach has shown that over the years. Most people who have worked with him would acknowledge that he has great energy and ability for work hard. We commend him on and thank him for that.

The Taoiseach stated that, in terms of politics, we could be more collaborative and that democracy works better when we respect each other. As Deputy Adams and others have already noted, this is true of the Taoiseach.

He has shown such a collaborative and, indeed, courteous approach in the ten or 15 years I have been here.

Everyone has different versions of history, and within families one always gets different tales of something that happened. My version of the history of the past nine years - this crucial period in Ireland's history - is slightly different from that of Deputy Howlin. We started to get into crisis exactly nine years ago, in June 2008, and the Taoiseach has had a central role in what has happened in recent years, whether we have got out of it or not. My recollection of 2011 is the metaphor of a relay race where we needed to hand the baton on. The Taoiseach took the baton and made sure it did not fall. We were all lucky in having a Minister for Finance who saw eye to eye with the previous Minister, Brian Lenihan, on what needed to be done. We do not know whether it was the right thing or the wrong thing and it is impossible to know what would have happened if we had let everything go, but the Taoiseach and his Cabinet colleagues decided, as we had done previously, not to let it go. The Taoiseach showed particular skill in holding everyone together in Government in those very uncertain times. It was not easy and people see leadership in all sorts of different things, but holding everything together and stopping it from falling is very important, as is bringing people together, which is what the Taoiseach did in the two Cabinets he led.

I regret that, while we stabilised the country, we did not reform. We did not do what we needed to do, which is to move to a different economic model, one which is fairer and more about developing communities than about the interests of profit and the market. That may be something we can turn to with the changing of the guard. We also need to change our approach to how we live with nature but that is the start and the heart of every community. We live with and are an integral part of nature and we have to protect it. The economy will be better if we do so. In recent months, when the Taoiseach may have known the finish line was approaching and may have not needed to worry so much, I heard him speak - not in this House but elsewhere - and it seemed to me he had started to get it. He seemed to be thinking in a bigger, longer-term way of what we needed to do. Perhaps, as he heads on to his next task, he will be an ambassador for big thinking along these lines. Maybe this will be led from Mayo, the cutting edge of Europe, a green county in a green country leading us into new and better economic ways. Go n-éirí an t-ádh leat ar an slí nua.

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