Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Given that the decision was made by Cabinet yesterday, flying in the face of the Dáil vote in support of the Labour Party motion on 18 May to delay the sale of AIB shares, and given that we will not sit for another two weeks, I will not have an opportunity to put this motion again. I am asking that the Leader take account of this. I know we have a busy day today but I am conscious that we have an extra half hour to spare given that the time allocated to Private Members' business has been reduced. On behalf of the Labour Party Senators, we would be happy to take the motion in the Minister's absence and vote on it in this House. It is a matter that is quite urgent.

Senator Conway-Walsh has spoken eloquently about the rationale for the motion, but briefly, in order that colleagues are aware, the motion simply calls on the Government to postpone the sale of AIB shares until we have sought and achieved a change to fiscal rules to permit greater levels of capital spending. It is somewhat ludicrous that the Minister for Finance has admitted that the proceeds of the sale of 25% of AIB will pay down just over 1% of our national debt. We in the Labour Party say that a far better use of the funds would be to put it towards capital investment, the investment that we all acknowledge is needed. Just this week, the future of health care report was published. Labour's Deputy Alan Kelly was on the committee and Labour has welcomed it, as have all parties. The report outlines an ambitious plan towards a single-tier health system but a key part of the plan is a €3 billion transition fund to provide for one-off system-changing measures. We say that fund would be a far better location for the proceeds of the sale of AIB. We need to delay the sale of our share in AIB to ensure that we can in fact put it towards investment in health or housing or public expenditure of the sort that is so desperately needed across the public service.

There was support across the Dáil for this motion and I ask colleagues across the House to support my proposed amendment to the Order of Business in order that we can take this urgent motion today.