Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Before I address the motion, I refer to the nonsense uttered by my good friend, Senator Ross. He has a remarkably selective view of the Government and its predecessors. If Deputy Quinn, as Minister for Finance, had behaved with the same level of irresponsibility as the current Minister for Finance in the two years prior to the 1997 election, the Government parties would never have seen the inside of Government Buildings. If the rainbow coalition parties had let the public finances run for two years with the same abandon as the Government parties, they would have won the 1997 election and presided over a boom with considerably greater skill than the Government elected. They would also have been re-elected last year. However, the price paid by them was to lose an election.

Due to the fact that the rainbow coalition lost an election, the current Administration inherited the most remarkable set of figures at a stage when 50,000 to 60,000 jobs a year were being created. In a short period of five and a half years, it has managed to get rid of that. Senator Ross's belief that rectitude in public finances is a characteristic of the current Government is based more on romance than reality. His continuing romance with the Minister for Finance has more to do with his judgment on this than reality ever had.

I am glad the Minister introduced the penalty points system. Not a single Member of the Oireachtas would say otherwise. However, I will not congratulate a Minister for taking a decision. The reason Government Members are so keen to do this is because it is a rarity that someone in the Government should take a serious decision which might go wrong. It might not have worked. The Minister received advice from many alleged experts that we were not ready for the system. However, he took responsibility and did something. I thought Governments were supposed to accept responsibility and take action. Now we are being told it is a shining example because it is such an unusual event.