Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

The Senator can reject it all he likes, but the people are waiting in the long grass to tell his party what they think of it. I agree with the policy of low taxes referred to by Senator O'Malley and we need to do everything possible to keep our taxes as low as possible. I also fully agree with Senator Ó Murchú on St. Patrick's Day which represents an opportunity that any country would love to have to sell itself. If we want to have a Government representative in the White House or anywhere else, however, the sooner the Taoiseach calls an election to get a proper Government in place, the better. I know what is happening. The Taoiseach's idea is to run along up to 10 March, tell the Green Party to go to hell with itself at that stage, go to New York, Washington or wherever, and whenever he comes back, call the election. That is the plan at the moment. He would be better off going to country as soon as the finance Bill is passed. Let us have the finance Bill. It should have been on its way to being passed, but the Government is not doing that. We know what it is at. It is trying to delay the Bill to get to St. Patrick's Day and call an election afterwards. I believe even the Green Party Members are waking up to what Fianna Fáil is up to at this stage.

We have discussed our amendment on export-led growth and given our policies on it. We had two similar motions prior to Christmas and yet we have another self-congratulatory motion coming up again as if Fianna Fáil was responsible for the increase in exports. Does the Minister of State think-----