Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael)

I follow on from colleagues who have spoken on the motion of confidence in the Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Harris, in the Dáil today. This is clearly a populist move at a time when a presidential election is happening and there is only one candidate from the Government side - from Fine Gael - running in the election. This is being used to try to attack Heather Humphrey's campaign and the Tánaiste and leader of Fine Gael.

It comes from a person who has very little credibility in this. He was out in the past week or so saying he is not even going to vote in the election. This is a person who talks of defending democracy, yet he is not using the right our predecessors and founders fought for, which is to vote in an election. Irrespective of your views on people running, the very least elected representatives could be doing is voting when there is a vote on.

We all know this is a populist move. The Tánaiste has worked incredibly hard in recent months as Tánaiste and Minister for foreign affairs, particularly on trade negotiations with the US and trying to get certainty on that. I have no doubt in the two-hour debate that will happen at 1 p.m., the Tánaiste and his colleagues in government will be well able to defend their record over the last number of months of this term.

We have a busy four years ahead as a State. Much work needs to be done. A programme for Government has been agreed which is ambitious and needs to be delivered, instead of wasting two hours of Dáil time on a motion which is totally political and is hypocritical in the sense that the Dáil spent three or four months debating the lack of speaking time and opportunity to speak. Now the Dáil will waste another two hours on a motion that the dogs in the street know is just a political move.