Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

A nation holds its breath. Our people are about to be given an unpalatable four-year plan. In 13 years, the Fianna Fáil Party has bankrupted Ireland with its friends. This is its legacy. I want a debate on how to put the situation right. It does not start with the four-year plan. It starts with the Government, led by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance attending the House and telling the truth. This is despite what the Green Party did last Monday in adding to the uncertainty and instability. We all have an obligation as legislators to put the people of Ireland first. That is our first duty. I speak for the ordinary person, the man and woman who is struggling and who will be hammered by the Government today. I understand that the blame game is over because Fianna Fáil is indicted by the people. I canvass and meet people up to seven days a week and they are tired and fed up of this Government and want it out, as we do.

I ask the Leader to consider Senator Fitzgerald's request that he should go to the Taoiseach and the Cabinet to ask that the budget be brought forward so we can have a streamlined slimmed down Finance Bill to facilitate a general election, give the people a say and reinvigorate them, renew hope and give us a new start. The people I taught in school, my nephews and nieces and the sons and daughters of Members here want a new beginning and to live in an Ireland where they can dream of a better future, not of cuts but of opportunity.

A nation that has given the world playwrights, scholars, musicians, sports people and artists deserves a better tomorrow. It can only start with a general election and a change of government.