Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

Fine Gael and the Labour Party took on the Government and the election based on finances that were available to them beforehand through confidential briefings and on the IMF deal. They promised that they could make all these changes, although they could not be done. I am reminded of the stag hunting ban and the organisation Rural Ireland Says Enough. Deputy McEntee defined rural Ireland by reference to stag hunting.

What about small schools and septic tanks? It was ironic to read in the newspaper last week that one of the blacklisted areas for septic tanks is Deputy McEntee's home parish of Lobinstown. What is the Fine Gael Party going to do about the effect of this imposition? We have seen no change whatsoever in planning policy for rural housing from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and county councils continue to stick to the same policy. We have seen attack after attack on rural Ireland, while the Government's definition of rural Ireland was confined to stag hunting.

The Government has not introduced anything different, but it is about time it did. It is about time it started taking radical action. I hope, if I am ever on the Government side of either House, I will not be as conservative as the current Government side is. It is too conservative and does not think outside of the box. I challenge the Minister of State. Last April, he came here and told us that jobs would come from the jobs budget, but when I challenged him to give the figures on it, he did not give them. Unfortunately, unemployment has risen. Now, we are asked to trust the Government that on the sale of State assets, €1 billion will be spent on job creation. That is pure madness and would be a total waste of money unless the Minister of State can identify line by line what each euro will achieve in terms of jobs. The jobs budget did not work the last time. It was just money flushed down the toilet. We cannot let that happen again.

We want change and something different. Fianna Fáil is changing and is looking for something different also because we believe an alternative vision must be offered. We were in power for long enough and it is now the turn of this Government. However, the public expected more and expected something different.