Dan Boyle (Green Party)

I expected the Opposition parties to outline how they addressed these issues when they were in government and how they propose to deal with them in future if they return to government. I heard no acknowledgement of responsibility for previous actions. I heard no vision for future Government participation.

On that level, motions of this type are entirely bogus because they do nothing to assist the people who are affected by Government decisions, as they have been and are now, or to show how we should aim to change them. If there is sincerity in what is being sought in this Private Members' motion, we should hear much more about why we have arrived at this stage and the decisions that need to be made in the budgetary context, in a situation where we as a country are spending €37 million of borrowed money every day. What choices would the Opposition parties make if they were in government? Would they reduce the amount of money being spent by curbing public expenditure in various ways? Would they raise taxation in various ways? A refusal to answer these questions is to play politics with the daily lives of the people they claim to represent in this motion. This is dishonest politics. It is unreasonable politics. It is politics without a heart or soul or any sense of real leadership. If we are to move forward democratically in these economically challenging times, we need a better sense of politics.