Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

I do not propose to accept this amendment. Governments need freedom of action. The issue of decisiveness has been the subject of some discussion recently. The Government needs to be able to take decisions freely. It is accountable to the Oireachtas, but that does not mean all of its decisions have to wait until they have been approved by both Houses. In the autumn, a package that was put together by the outgoing Administration on the other side of the Atlantic was seriously delayed in Congress, which caused serious difficulties. One could go down many different alleyways in reply to Senator Doherty.

I refute the suggestion that this is a partitionist Parliament. Partition was not desired by any party in this Parliament. It was not possible to prevent partition by force. I suspect that all parties in the Dáil, with the exception of Senator Doherty's party, would reject the idea or imputation that people preferred a 26-county state, rather than a 32-county state. I have been to the Galway Races on two or three occasions. The people at every table at which I sat were interested in horses or involved in the equine industry. Rather than talking about property development, they discussed the prospects of the various horses.