Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Hear, hear.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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My God, the Taoiseach sounds like a member of the Opposition.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Now he definitely sounds like one of us.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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After four years.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Go to the people.

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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That is not going to happen.

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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In evaluating how far one has travelled, it is necessary to remember the starting point. In November 2010, the US financial journalist Michael Lewis visited this country to write about Ireland’s economic meltdown under the previous Government. His article was published in Vanity Fairin March 2011, the same month that Labour and Fine Gael came into office. It is worth quoting a segment of that article to remind ourselves where this country found itself at that time:

In recognition of the spectacular losses, the entire Irish economy has almost dutifully collapsed. When you fly into Dublin you are traveling, for the first time in 15 years, against the traffic. The Irish are once again leaving Ireland, along with hordes of migrant workers. In late 2006, the unemployment rate stood at a bit more than 4 percent; now it’s 14 percent and climbing toward rates not experienced since the mid-1980s. Just a few years ago, Ireland was able to borrow money more cheaply than Germany; now, if it can borrow at all, it will be charged interest rates nearly 6 percent higher than Germany, another echo of a distant past. The Irish budget deficit—which three years ago was a surplus—is now 32 percent of its G.D.P., the highest by far in the history of the Eurozone. One credit-analysis firm has judged Ireland the third-most-likely country to default. Not quite as risky for the global investor as Venezuela, but riskier than Iraq. Distinctly Third World, in any case.

I am happy to say we have demonstrated the opposite, quickly agreeing a statement of Government priorities which spelled out how we would work to secure and deepen the economic recovery in a manner felt in people's daily lives, in other words, that the ongoing programme of economic repair would be accompanied by an equal emphasis on social repair and progress.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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They are all happy-clappy.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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We set six key priorities: strengthening the economy and prioritising new jobs for the unemployed, delivering better living and working standards, improving housing availability and affordability, responsible and sustainable management of the public finances, rebuilding trust in politics and public institutions, and protecting and enhancing peace in Northern Ireland. We then set about delivering those priorities.

Coalition governments are not easy. By definition, two parties with different political outlooks will disagree on issues from time to time. That is as it should be – robust debate is to be welcomed, not feared. The key is compromise – to find an agreed solution that works in the country's best interests. To find compromise, there must be trust and professionalism – that is at the heart of any coalition government. The late US President John F. Kennedy, once said, "Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer." That is the core of the agreement that the Taoiseach and I reached - at all times seeking the right answer that will best serve the people of Ireland.

The Taoiseach is a man of integrity who has nothing other than Ireland's best interests at heart. The trust at the centre of the Government has created the room for vigorous debate on policy that need not be taken as a crisis every time there is disagreement. We had plenty of vigorous debate in advance of the budget but in the end, agreed a package that met our mutual objectives as laid down in the statement of Government priorities.

The recent budget marked a decisive shift, completing the first phase of the recovery and beginning the second - restoring living standards for families, older people, and low and middle-income workers. It combined modest, but focused, increases in public expenditure to address clear and identifiable needs, with highly progressive adjustments in USC and taxation that give the greatest proportion of the gains to low and middle-income workers. Those adjustments in taxation will be seen in workers' pay packets from January, and every worker will benefit.

Having already taken 310,000 workers out of the USC net in 2011, we removed an additional 80,000 workers from the USC net in the recent budget. We made a series of other tax reforms that ensured 33,000 workers have been taken out of the top tax rate, tax has been reduced for those earning between €33,800 and €70,000, and the gains are capped for anybody earning over €70,000.

Also from January, we are increasing child benefit by €5 for all families to assist with the cost of raising children, and we will repeat that in the next budget. We have restored a 25% Christmas bonus for social welfare recipients this year, including pensioners, persons living alone, those with disabilities and carers, and we are providing for additional spending and new initiatives – through the Pathways to Work strategy and the Action Plan for Jobs – to increase the momentum on the employment front and to help jobseekers return to work.

We are providing a record €3.8 billion for social housing and have started to recruit more teachers in our schools – including special needs assistants - and more gardaí on our streets. That is the social dividend, the investment dividend into Irish society. We are rolling out a national broadband plan to assist economic growth, job creation and social inclusion in every community. However, we must do much more than that, and we will. The Government is committed to getting more people back to work, helping small businesses to prosper, building social and affordable homes and new schools, investing in health and reducing inequality. In other words, the Government is committed to ensuring that the recovery works for the many and not just the few.

Work and fair wages are front and centre to that aim. Full employment must be our key priority, because the strongest protection against poverty is decent, secure and fairly paid work. Labour is the party of work. That has been my abiding conviction since I first entered politics and it is my abiding conviction as leader of the Labour Party. Many in this House who identify as being on the left devalue people going to work.

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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That is rubbish.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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They seem to want welfare only. That is to insult working people. It is for this reason that budget 2015 provides an additional €3 billion in resources for the domestic economy compared to previous plans, to place job creation front and centre. It is for this reason we have established a strategic bank to drive credit into small and medium enterprises. It is why we are progressively reducing taxes for low and middle-income earners in this budget from January, and will continue to do so in the next budget, so that they share in the recovery, and it why we are delivering collective bargaining for workers and have established a low pay commission to address wage issues.

The Government’s Construction 2020 and social housing strategies will, between them, bring tens of thousands of new affordable and social homes every year, and provide jobs for the 80,000 construction workers currently out of work. We are commencing a new cycle of investment in public services, because quality public services are essential to reducing inequality. In addition, we are embarking on a new phase of political reform to restore trust in our institutions and public life, building on the very significant work already carried out by my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin.

Let me be clear and this is where we differ from some of the people who call themselves left wing. We want every teenager in this country to have an opportunity to get an apprenticeship, traineeship, or college place. We do not want our young people on the dole.

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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They are in Canada or Australia.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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The Tánaiste is in Government. She should do something.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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The Tánaiste should pinch herself; she is the Minister.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Members should settle down.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I have mentioned trust a couple of times in this speech already and I wish to briefly return to the topic. Trust is an essential part of public life. The next general election will be about trust.

John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour)
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People should trust Finian.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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People should trust the Independents.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Members should stay quiet.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I have absolute confidence that when the members of the public are asked whom they trust to secure and deepen the recovery and spread it to every household, they will place their faith in this Government to continue doing exactly that. It is because while we are providing an additional €3 billion in resources for the economy, we are also ensuring at the same time that we proceed with the ongoing repair of our public finances and comfortably exceed our deficit reduction targets. One could ask why. It is because this Government will not do anything to imperil the recovery. There will be no return to the Fianna Fáil-style recklessness of the past and nor we will succumb to the type of future recklessness so casually advocated by Sinn Féin.

It is just one year since Ireland’s exit from the bailout. By and large, we have stopped talking about the bailout because as a country all of us wish it never happened and as a people we are still living with its after-effects.

However, it happened and it was caused largely by Fianna Fáil's ruinous bank guarantee which left the country in financial rubble.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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The Tánaiste wants to spend more.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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That was the reality which this Government faced upon taking office.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Sorry, Tánaiste, your time is concluded.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The rubble was at our feet and we had to find a way to rebuild the economy and begin the recovery. I heard Deputy Adams recently on a radio programme telling Europe to bugger off or sod off, or whatever phrase he used. That is a recipe for beggaring the Irish people and the Irish economy.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Time up.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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During all the debates he continually wanted to default and now he wants to default in the future precisely when that would be one of the most nonsensical things to do. Not even most of the Independents would agree with a policy of defaulting now.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Thank you, Tánaiste.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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If that is what it means to have a thought-out economic policy, it would imperil the future-----

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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That is a very poor comparison.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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The Tánaiste is over time in every sense.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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-----of every child in this country and put us trundling back into the arms of the troika. It is incredibly irresponsible to suggest at this point in time that this country can default again.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Sorry, Tánaiste, I have to cut you off now, please.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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This Government will finish the job it was elected by the people to do. We will work with might and main on behalf of the people to bring the recovery to every individual, every family and every community.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Suigh síos.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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A bit or order for Deputy Martin, please. Members leaving the Chamber should leave quietly.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Reflecting on the debate and the speeches we have just heard, I would like to remark that the great phrase, "Frankfurt's way or Labour's way", does not sound too dissimilar to "Europe can bugger off".

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Is this one you heard earlier?

A Deputy:

Is this one you prepared earlier?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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No, it is not. It is on foot of what I have just heard. In many respects, the debate is a perfect illustration of why the people have for a long time and in ever greater numbers lost confidence in this Government. Elected with the largest majority in our history and even backed by the genuine goodwill of non-supporters, Fine Gael and the Labour Party had an unprecedented opportunity to implement reform. They had the space to put in place a vision for a fairer Ireland. They also had a lengthy media honeymoon to keep some of the normal pressures away. However, they chose a different way. There has been no new social or economic blueprint for our future. There has been no attempt to change how our country is governed. There has been no interest in reaching out to those without political power. This is an arrogant, out of touch and increasingly out of control Government which has been deeply unfair and divisive. With its trail of broken promises and obsession with spin, it has broken faith with the people who elected it. It has been deeply divisive in its policies and blind to the destructive impact it has had in area after area.

Time and again, major problems have been allowed to develop directly because of Government policies and have only been addressed when there has been a massive public backlash. The Taoiseach has repeatedly come to the House to tell us how everything is going fine, only to see hospitals, schools, the Garda Síochána, property tax, water charges, medical cards, household debts, personal pensions, job insecurity, housing, drug abuse and area after area of public services slide into crises. As we have heard yet again today, this is a Government which is so out of touch that it does not have the faintest idea why it is so profoundly unpopular and continues to spark loud resistance.

Yet again we have heard the fairy-tale story of a selfless Government which came to office and turned everything around and only has problems because of how hard it has been working on our behalf. There are occasional admissions of small mistakes, but the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and their dwindling band of followers basically believe that people are not giving them the credit they deserve. According to them, anything bad they did was only because they were forced to do it.

This is a story which is as dishonest as it is discredited.

In its nearly four years in office the Government has never produced a plan for the economic and social development of our country. In fact its very first decision as a coalition was not to negotiate a new fiscal framework. For its first three years it followed the broad guidelines of the plan it inherited and, by the way, had campaigned against in the general election.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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And the mess.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Earlier the Taoiseach attacked people who opposed the plan. No one opposed the plan more persistently and consistently than the Taoiseach himself, the previous Tánaiste and the current Tánaiste. They voted against large measures of the plan for which they subsequently claimed credit. However, Fine Gael and the Labour Party did begin one decisive shift in policy. They have made taxation and public spending significantly more regressive. They have repeatedly ignored ability to pay when imposing taxes and charges and they have targeted cutbacks on the weakest sections of the community.

As every independent study has shown, the budgets introduced by my late colleague, Brian Lenihan, were ones where the wealthiest bore the biggest burden. As every independent study has also confirmed, Fine Gael and the Labour Party have implemented four budgets out of four where struggling families have borne the biggest burden.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Hear, hear.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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From day one, the Government has put politics before substance. It has seen every problem in terms of how to spin it. After an enormous defeat in May’s local elections, after rising discontent on the doorsteps and in the streets, and after a forced reshuffle, following an uprising in the Labour Party and disquiet in Fine Gael, the Government still does not get it. It still does not understand the anger, frustration and basic everyday struggle of families throughout the country.

This debate has been framed as a new start, the moment when the Government gets its act together and starts communicating its message. The Taoiseach set it off yesterday with his launch of Fine Gael’s budget calculator, to be accompanied by leafleting in every constituency. According to Fine Gael, the calculator is there to show everyone how much money it is putting "back in your pocket". The calculator shows that the average family will get dramatically less than a high-income family, but the real revelation is to be found buried in the section termed “assumptions”. There one finds two incredible statements, that "Local property tax liabilities (if any) are ignored" and that water charges are not included and "The tax credit in respect of water charges paid during 2015 will be given in 2016". Once again, the Government just does not get it. It is a Government that implements damaging and unfair policies but thinks it can spin its way out of trouble.

It is important to note that the Labour Party fully shares this commitment to selective and dishonest spin. This week it too has launched a post-budget offensive, with a claim that nearly 1.2 million children will benefit from the child benefit increase it claims it has secured. It takes a special level of cynicism to cut something one said one would never touch and then ask for credit when one gives a bit of it back.

Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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You cut everything.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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It is true that fiscal consolidation has been important and unavoidable. Those parties which like to pretend that all hard decisions could have been avoided are as dishonest as those who pretend that they have had no impact. In his claims about bringing the budget under control the Taoiseach, of course, again refused to acknowledge that two thirds of the required measures were brought into law before he came to office. As I stated earlier, he also failed to mention that he voted against the bulk of measures for which today he is trying to claim credit.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Like cutting the blind pension.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Unsurprisingly, the Taoiseach has found no room to acknowledge how European policies negotiated by others and automatically extended to Ireland gave him billions towards achieving targets.

Today our economy is undeniably stronger than it was, and equally undeniable is the fact that the core reason for this has nothing to do with the Government.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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You were talking about spin a few minutes ago.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Reilly was removed from the health portfolio because of his miserable failures in the Department. That is why the Taoiseach did that to him.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Martin was removed from government because of his proposals.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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With the greatest of respect, he is the last person in Cabinet who should open his mouth today because he is the personification of why people have lost confidence in the Government.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Commission a report. You would want a strong shelf for your reports.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Let us get back to the debate.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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It is the skills and hard work of the people that have helped our economy, not the short-term, damaging and divisive policies of the Government. These skills were built up over decades, and the areas of the economy which have grown are ones which were present and growing before 2011, particularly foreign direct investment.

This week there will once again be major demonstrations over the deeply unfair water charge and the manner in which it was implemented. As the Minister, Deputy Noonan, apparently confirmed in an angry letter to the European Commission, this is a policy which has been fully at the discretion of the Government. This is what he has just said to the Commission and what he still claims. The bloated and wasteful utility, Irish Water, is one of Fine Gael’s longest standing policies and goes back to 2009.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Jobs for the boys.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister, Deputy Coveney, knows all about it because he conceived it.

Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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You said the same about the ESB.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The usage-based charge was defended by the party from the very start in the NewERA document. We have ended up with a situation where a charge is being imposed to fund meters which are pointless, to maintain a bureaucracy which no one wants and to justify an accounting gimmick which may not work. The Government has no one to blame for this fiasco but itself.

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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They are drowning in it.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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This was a defining issue in May, whether the Government likes it or not. The Taoiseach said he understood the message loud and clear. The Cabinet spent four months preparing a final answer, which lasted four weeks. Why can the Government not just bow to the inevitable and end this issue? Irish Water should be abolished and this charge should be suspended immediately.

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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If things keep going as they are, we will end up with a huge hole in the national budget and people will be paying for declining investment in water services.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Will we go back to Deputy Martin's solution?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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This increasingly chaotic approach to policy, where ministerial actions ignore and make major problems worse, has been seen in nearly every Department and there is no reason to believe it will end soon. As Fianna Fáil pointed out repeatedly during the past year, housing pressures were escalated by the Tánaiste’s decision to restrict housing benefit and cut and cap rent supplement. To make room for Fine Gael’s higher rate income tax cut, she directly caused enormous problems families and individuals. I am not just saying this. Focus Ireland, Simon Communities and every housing agency has consistently stated this over the past year.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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You had ten years and you did nothing.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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You did not build a single house.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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At local level, the Tánaiste's party in Dublin, with Fine Gael support, earlier this year tried to cut homeless services until forced to retreat by our councillors.

I welcome the new commitment of the Government to allocate emergency funding for homelessness-----

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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That is good of you.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----but this will be merely a sticking plaster if the more serious policy mistake of cutting housing benefit and rent supplement is not reversed. Unfortunately, we have heard nothing from the Government to suggest it understands this. There is growing evidence that the combination of neglect and targeted cutbacks is allowing the scourge of drugs to spread in more and more communities. This is the first Government in three decades not to have a Minister assigned to either community development or combating drugs.

Deputies:

Hear, hear.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Shame.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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This shows itself in the reality of what has been happening. There has been a sustained withdrawal of State support for marginalised communities and drugs have been seen as only important as a public order issue. The social devastation that drugs cause is nowhere on the Government's agenda and was missing from the complacent and self-satisfied speeches of the Government we have heard to date. In the face of this, it shows something about the priorities of the Taoiseach and his party that his only specific commitment for the next budget and for the years ahead is to cut taxes for the highest earners.

In health, yet again claims of adequate funding have fallen apart within days. The damage done in three years of failed policies has not been reversed. At best the rate of decline will be maintained. The Government has not given the HSE the funds required to maintain adequate services. The massive rises in waiting lists, still dismissed by the Taoiseach, will not be halted but will get worse. While the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, implies he knows it is flawed, the Government remains committed to implementing a health funding model which would lead directly to a massive health tax. It would create a monster which would make Irish Water look like value for money.

In education, schools face a growing funding crisis, with those who serve poorer communities suffering disproportionately. Protests are being made by communities throughout the country as they see the impact on local life and on their children. This is the direct result of regressive and avoidable policies. The abolition of postgraduate grants and the elimination of career guidance counsellors' ex quota positions are two examples.

The approach of trying to implement policy without discussion or review led directly to last week’s second-level school strikes and is part of a wider problem of refusing to engage with public servants. This arrogant and dismissive approach allowed the biggest crisis in the modern history of the Garda to develop. It has also led to the withdrawal of community policing as the defining characteristic of An Garda Síochána.

The pattern of neglecting problems and allowing them to become crises has also shown itself regarding Northern Ireland. When Fianna Fáil pointed out the collapsing public confidence in the behaviour of the DUP and Sinn Féin, and the danger this posed, we received sustained abuse in response, not just from those parties but from the Government. The Taoiseach even gave a speech saying things had never been better. With growing problems on the street, rising sectarian tensions and an Executive which is destroying public trust in the achievements of the Good Friday Agreement, this week the Taoiseach will for the first time attend a negotiation with the parties. That is not a record to be proud of.

The failure of the Government to implement even one significant reform of politics and government confirms how it mainly cares about retaining power. Appointing an advisory group on the Seanad without consultation about its role or membership confirms that nothing significant will be implemented.

The Taoiseach must bear responsibility for the growing crisis in his Government and the collapse of public trust in it. He busies himself with photo opportunities-----

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Bertie.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----and brief comments but has been the least accessible Taoiseach of modern times when it comes to detailed interviews or debates.

Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Get into a bit of depth, Micheál.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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He simply will not participate in them. He retreats behind over-written political attacks and empty claims instead of directly engaging with opponents or the people he is here to serve.

Tá easpa físe i gcroílár an Rialtais seo agus ó thaobh na Gaeilge de, is léir nach bhfuil an Rialtas i ndáiríre. Sin é an fáth a d'éirigh an iar-Choimisinéir Teanga as oifig, de bharr an easpa oibre ón Rialtas.

The Government had the opportunity to set a vision for a country that treats its younger and older citizens decently and to build a recovery felt by all. Instead it has caused deepened divisions and inequality. It has been unfair and it has been increasingly incompetent. Without the guidance of other people’s blueprints to follow it has stumbled from crisis to crisis. It has no economic plan for the years ahead. It has no social plan for the years ahead. It is in office but not leading. All it has is the ever-more desperate desire to find a way of holding on to power.

The people have shown that they have no confidence in the Government to address their concerns and the needs of our country. Dáil Éireann should also have no confidence in a tired, arrogant and complacent Government which will not acknowledge let alone address its many and growing failings.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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We did not cut the blind pension. Who did that?

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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I call Deputy Adams.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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What about the respite care grant?

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Who cut the blind pension? Does Deputy Martin remember that?

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Is your name Deputy Adams?

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I am sorry a Cheann Comhairle. The man is suffering loss of memory.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Would you stay quiet please?

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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The respite care grant was cut by 90%.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Tá an Rialtas seo ag dul trí ghéarchéim mhór agus tá a chumhacht caillte aige anois. Tá na fáthanna leis seo an-soiléir. Bhris páirtithe an Rialtais gach gealltanas a rinne siad roimh an olltoghchán deireanach.

Sinn Féin tabled a motion of no confidence in the Taoiseach to be debated in tandem with tomorrow's right-to-water demonstration, as is our entitlement. However, the Government was determined at all costs to stop that. A Government that is so frightened at the mere prospect of debating an Opposition motion is not fit to lead this State through the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

The distance between the Taoiseach's election rhetoric and the reality of this Fine Gael-Labour Government did not begin this week or last. It is over two years since the Taoiseach and Tánaiste of the day termed as a “seismic shift” and a “game changer” the Eurogroup commitment in June 2012 to separate banking and sovereign debt. What has the Government done about that since? It has failed to convince any of our European partners that Ireland deserved retrospective recapitalisation. The truth is the Government has not even made the effort. It is all spin and no substance.

We saw how Labour and Fine Gael mishandled the GSOC affair, and the whistleblower controversy around Garda corruption which culminated in the firing of the former Garda Commissioner, Mr. Martin Callinan, and the resignation of the then Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter.

The local and European elections last May sent a very clear message from the citizens to the Government to change direction. However, in what has become the hallmark of Labour and Fine Gael, they refused to listen. The former Tánaiste and leader of the Labour Party was sacrificed but nothing else changed. Since the summer, the Government has been plunged into yet another series of controversies. We had the McNulty-gate affair, which showed a clear insight into the Government's shameful attitude to the arts and its offensive sleeveen attitude to State boards. Then there was the complete rejection of Labour and Fine Gael by the electorates of Dublin South-West and Roscommon-Leitrim South. The Government also lost its Seanad majority.

The overriding theme has been the pursuit of a deeply unfair economic policy, which has imposed brutal and destructive austerity measures on struggling families and vulnerable citizens. The Government’s budgets have been among the most regressive the State has ever seen. Budget 2015 is the fourth regressive budget in a row. It widened the rich-poor gap and deepened inequality. For God’s sake, what is the point of Labour if it does not uphold equality? Budget 2015 represented an opportunity to give citizens a break. Instead they got water charges, property tax and a cut to the top rate of tax, rewarding a wealthy minority.

Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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What tax would we get from Sinn Féin? It would be a wealth tax.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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In the period from 2008 to 2015, budget changes in tax and social welfare have had the greatest impact on two groups in particular - welfare-dependent households and working-poor households. As I said earlier the Government still refuses to listen. It refused to listen to the huge demand of citizens in 2011 when it elected Fine Gael and Labour to put an end to the failed politics of the past. It refused to listen to those elements of civil society and organisations which repeatedly warned of the disastrous social consequences of its policies.

The Taoiseach has refused to listen to his own backbenchers and the growing list of critics within his party. He refuses, all the time, to listen to the Opposition here in the Dáil, no matter what propositions we put forward. The Government has used its huge majority to force through policies which have increased poverty, inequality and social exclusion. Hundreds of thousands of citizens have been forced to emigrate on the Government's watch. In the past eight years almost 500,000 of our citizens - young people mostly - have been forced to leave this State with desperate communal, societal and other consequences for families in particular.

In cut after cut, the Labour Party, in particular, has attacked the very people it has always claimed to protect. Is it Fine Gael’s way or Labour’s way? Deputies should check it out. The Government cut the respite care grant by €325 annually. The Cabinet sat down and decided to cut respite care grant by €325. It cut the fuel allowance and household benefits package, which some of the poorest households including the elderly and people with disabilities depend on to heat their homes, by six weeks or €120 in the case of the fuel allowance. The Cabinet sat down and took that decision collectively.

It abolished the bereavement grant. The Cabinet sat down and took that decision collectively. It abolished the telephone allowance, taking €251 from the annual budgets of people over 70 years of age. It cut State pensions by hiking the pension age from 65 to 68. It shortened the payment period of jobseeker's benefit by three months which amounts to a cut of 33% in this core weekly payment. Again this was a collective decision of the Cabinet.

It first taxed maternity benefit and then cut it. The majority of maternity benefit recipients will now see their weekly payment cut by €32. It cut the rate at which the invalidity pension would have been payable to 65 year olds by €36.80 per week. The Cabinet, sitting round the table, took that decision.

Under this Government the State’s shambolic health system continues to crumble.

The Taoiseach stood by his former Minister for Health, even when primary care centres were conveniently located on the Minister’s doorstep.

Then there was the debacle about the removal of discretionary medical cards when citizens with acute medical conditions and disabilities had their medical cards taken from them. For a long time, perhaps over a year, the Government refused even to accept what its own backbenchers were telling it about this huge injustice being inflicted upon those families. First we were told that there was no such thing as a discretionary medical card. Who told us that? A Labour Party Minister. The Government capitulated and decided to return cards to some 15,000 people. It did not, however, decide to return the cards to all those from whom they had originally been removed. Last month we saw so-called reform of the medical card scheme, but citizens on discretionary medical cards are still in danger of losing them.

The troika is now gone, but I have my own little theory. When the troika was here and the Government just did what it was told, things were okay. However, when the Government had to deal with issues as they arose, it completely lost its way. According to the well known maxim, it is not what happens to you in your life but how you respond to it which is the important matter. This Government has been unable to deal in a competent, thought-out, strategic way with any event or crisis that has arisen on its watch. Its cutbacks to funding for health services, education and training, as well as the failure to deal with funding for drug and alcohol addiction services, are having dreadful social repercussions. So too is its refusal to build sufficient social housing to address the housing crisis and its refusal to stand up to the banks in defence of families in mortgage distress. That says it all. The Government is deferential to the elites and the big people while being absolutely dismissive of the small people. I have said that many times in this Chamber.

Sinn Féin does its best to voice the concerns of countless thousands of citizens. That is our mandate, but the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste will not answer a straightforward question put to them across the floor of this Chamber. People have seen through this because citizens are not stupid. They have seen through the patronising responses and insulting remarks. The actions of the Government in this Chamber in failing to be straight with the Opposition or with citizens is damaging faith in the political system. Every time the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste evade questions and duck and dodge their responsibilities, they merely expose this Government's arrogance and incompetence. It is the arrogance of power or what passes for power in this Oireachtas.

The Government has no progressive policy on the Irish language. The Straitéis 20 Bliain don Ghaeilge is a non-policy. Gaeltacht areas are being subverted by the failure to look after what are essentially the wells of Gaeilge. According to a recent report, only 1,000 children are cainteoirí dúchais - only 1,000 native speakers in the Gaeltacht areas.

In his remarks, the Taoiseach never even mentioned the North. The last time he had to make a keynote speech here he did not mention the North either. The Government’s approach to the North and the peace process has been totally inadequate. He sees Sinn Féin as electoral rivals, rather than partners in peace-making. That is a profound mistake which fails all of the people in the North - Unionists and the rest of us - as well as citizens across this State. The Government has failed in its obligations by refusing to stand up to the British Government as equals on the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements of which the Government is a co-guarantor.

For many Irish citizens, and particularly for people in the Six Counties, the success of the current discussions will be judged on whether they deliver justice to the many families injured and bereaved during the conflict. We have the Eames and Bradley reports, and most recently, the proposals put by Meghan O'Sullivan and Richard Haass. However, in a current paper to these talks, the British Government has invoked a national security clause to block victims and survivors from accessing information, thus keeping the truth hidden. This Government cannot be complicit in this. The Taoiseach must seek to have that national security clause removed because the families of Dublin and Monaghan, of Pat Finucane, of Ballymurphy and others expect nothing less.

The Government has no intention of properly marking the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising. It has no plan and no vision. Under recent pressure from the relatives of the 1916 Leaders, the Government produced a glossy brochure which was, however, devoid of historical substance or details. The video which launched "Ireland 2016" made no mention of the Easter Rising or of the signatories of the Proclamation. The truth is that Government will not mark the Rising appropriately because it is opposed to the political, social and economic intent of the Proclamation.

The Government's imposition of domestic water charges in the face of such widespread opposition is proving to be the final straw for many families. Irish Water is this Government's Frankenstein creation and is a child of Fianna Fáil's. It has been characterised by excessive spending on consultants, bonuses and cronyism. In fact, it has become synonymous with everything that is wrong with this Government - political manipulation of State boards, threats to citizens, and escalating taxes on struggling families. Irish Water is now a toxic brand. The Government should reverse its unjust water policy and scrap water charges.

Tomorrow’s demonstration outside the gates of Leinster House will leave the Taoiseach in no doubt where citizens stand on this issue. I am sure he is in no doubt, anyhow. He has underestimated the level of public anger at the Government's record. The Taoiseach's attitude stands in stark contrast to the deferential way he deals with elites in the EU or the banking fraternity, as opposed to ordinary, decent citizens.

What is needed is a complete change of political direction and a realignment of politics in this State. A fairer way forward is required, involving economic stimulus, investment in public services, progressive taxation, and the abolition of water charges and the property tax.

The Taoiseach has said he sees the next election as a choice between Fine Gael or Sinn Féin. The fundamental ideological difference between Sinn Féin and this deeply unpopular Government is that we believe in a real republic - a citizen-centred, rights-based society. This Government believes in austerity, not rights, and in elites, not citizens.

The Taoiseach should take courage in his own hands. If he is really serious, he should resign, call a general election, have a real democratic revolution and let the citizens decide. I urge Deputies from all sides to reject the Government's counter-motion. They should reject the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Government generally.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy John Halligan is sharing with Deputies Finian McGrath, Richard Boyd Barrett, Joan Collins, Thomas Pringle, Shane Ross and Clare Daly. Is that agreed? Agreed.

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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As the Taoiseach knows, I come from the Waterford constituency which has one of the highest levels of unemployment and lowest levels of investment. It has suffered severe job losses in recent years. In proportion to cities of the same size, Waterford has lost more SMEs than anywhere else.

I run 13 advice centres and I have two offices in Waterford. People from all walks of life seek advice in my offices, including employers, employees, the unemployed and families. In recent years, they have told me the same story of the pain and suffering that has been inflicted on many of them. I believe that unnecessary pain and suffering has been inflicted on the people due to greed and avarice, as well as reckless investment, spending and borrowing.

Those who have had to pay the most are not responsible for what has happened. The public are all too aware of the consequences of repaying this debt over the past six years. We do not have enough teachers in classrooms or beds in hospitals, and waiting lists for critical services are increasing.

Thousands of children with disabilities are waiting years for assessments and supports. No matter how much Government officials attempt to massage the figures, these are the facts. We have one of the most expensive child care systems in the world and more than 750,000 of our people, including 200,000 children, live in poverty. Food poverty is experienced by 10% of the population and we have very stark income related health inequality. Calls to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul have increased by 100% since 2009 and the organisation is spending almost €80 million per annum helping individuals and families in need. Parents wave goodbye daily to children who cannot find work here and indigenous small and medium enterprises and brave entrepreneurs - which should have been given every support possible - are on their knees.

The Taoiseach can see where I am coming from and I tend to be at one with the people who come to my office and the very many people I speak to every day. In the little time I have left, I will tell a story about a woman called Paula Bergin, who died at Waterford Regional Hospital a short time ago. She had private health insurance but shared a ward with four men and while she was dying, there was a soccer match on television, so the men were shouting and jumping up and down. The Taoiseach may have read about this in the newspapers or heard about it. What a way to die and what an undignified death. Her husband and child could not hear her last words. In 2014, that would not happen in most other countries or in the Third World. Does the Taoiseach believe that family in Waterford would have confidence in the health system or this Government? The Taoiseach knows where I stand. I stand with them.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak to this very important motion of confidence in the Government. My criticism will not be personalised but refer to Government policies and its record. This vote will be about overall Government responsibility. It is about competence, leadership and the way our people were being treated in the recent past. That is why I will be voting that I have no confidence in this Government. There can be no fudge on this very important issue by any Member of the House. This is about serious political issues and the future of this country.

We all know difficult decisions had to be made in the recent past but there was injustice in many of those decisions which hit the old, sick and disabled. We have seen cuts in services to people with a disability, with a 19% cut in the respite care grant. We have seen Fine Gael and the Labour Party implementing the home tax despite opposing it in the past. The same people who said they were opposed to water charges have now implemented them, and there was a debacle in forming Irish Water. At the same time, there is talk of cutting taxes for people who are better off in our society.

In the other Ireland, there are disadvantaged areas and communities riddled by drugs, crime and mass poverty, as well as people devastated by gangland crime. We have also witnessed the issues surrounding discretionary medical cards. These are the reasons I support the call for no confidence in the Government. The school completion programme had a budget to help the most disadvantaged children in this State, but it has been cut from €32.9 million to €24 million over recent years, which is a cut of 33%. For this and many other reasons, I am calling for a vote of no confidence in this Government.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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There is something completely shambolic and surreal about holding a confidence vote in this Government in the Dáil when everybody knows the real confidence vote will take place on the streets tomorrow when, at 1 p.m. at Merrion Square, tens of thousands of people will assemble in the real people's parliament. They will cast a decisive vote of no confidence in this Government.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Parliament seems to have no role.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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They will vote against the injustice of the water charges and the Government's failure to listen to what the people have said on that issue. They will vote against the equally cruel, unjust and regressive universal social charge and home taxes. They will vote against the cruelty of leaving people needing vital operations on waiting lists for over a year. They will vote against the fact that we have some of the most overcrowded classrooms in Europe and that all of this has been done when the big corporate investors in property and landlords are coining it and while hundreds of thousands of our citizens cannot put an affordable roof over their head and people are dying on the streets. They do this as the Government refuses, point blank, to levy even a small amount of extra tax on the super-wealthy or the corporations which are making absolute fortunes. That is why people are protesting and the Government has already lost the real vote of confidence from the people in this country. No matter what game or manipulation happens in this Parliament, the Taoiseach should remember that real power lies with the people and real change has always come from the people mobilising on the street. Reforms have been won in recent weeks because people have gone on the streets and refused to accept water charges or expressed their outrage against the homelessness crisis. That is more than anything achieved by the Government in the past four years and more reforms will be won as those protests continue. It is about time the Government listened to them.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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I agree it is shambolic that the Government has introduced the motion of confidence to the Dáil today, knowing that all the backbenchers will march in here and vote at the appropriate time to support the Government, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy is of course open to persuasion.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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The latest polls place Fine Gael at 19% and the Labour Party at 6%. We can compare this to the Red C poll of February 2011, when Fine Gael was at 40% and the Labour Party was at 20%. The Government is now as unpopular as the Fianna Fáil and Green Party Government which presided over the bank guarantee, the bank bailout, the economic crash and the troika bailout. That is some achievement.

The Taoiseach indicated he would overhaul the flawed bailout plans of the previous Government but he has done nothing of the sort and instead implemented it in full. The Government has defended bankers and the wealthy while imposing austerity on those who can least afford it. We are still waiting for the promised deal on the bank bailout, which is not even mentioned at this stage.

The Labour Party is the party of broken promises. We heard of "Labour's way or Frankfurt's way" but this quickly became Fine Gael's way. There were Tesco-style advertisements indicating that "every little hurts" produced by the Labour Party before the election. These argued that Fine Gael would increase VAT by 2% but if people voted for the Labour Party, that would be stopped. Fine Gael was supported by the Labour Party in introducing that VAT increase. The Labour Party argued it would stop Fine Gael cutting child benefit but it has supported those cuts in this Dáil.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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We have restored that benefit.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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Before the 2011 general election, the current Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, indicated that his party was not in favour of water charges and did not believe in a flat rate. He argued that everybody's home could not be metered. He and many backbenchers made that claim. Nevertheless, the Government introduced and implemented those water taxes, which affect ordinary people.

The Tánaiste indicated that trust is an essential part of public life but the Government has lost that trust. Tomorrow, on international human rights day, the people will send the message to the Government that they have no confidence in it. I will be out there with them.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Hear, hear.

Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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As if we did not need another example of the betrayal by this Government of the citizens in this country, this morning I listened on local radio to people who are trying to restore mammography services to Sligo General Hospital. The radio show played a clip of the former Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, when two years ago he stated that mammography services would be re-established within 12 months, or quicker if he could manage it. That was a promise. We are two years down the road but the campaign group was informed yesterday that mammography services will never be reinstated at Sligo. That is another example of this Government's betrayal of the people. There may be an economic recovery in some parts of the country - perhaps on the east coast - but it is certainly not happening in the north west. That arises from this Government's betrayal of the people.

The Government lied its way into power and turned its back on citizens and the promises made to them.

It picked up the programme brought in by Fianna Fáil, ran with it and kowtowed to its masters in Europe at every opportunity. The Taoiseach went to Davos and said we all partied and it was all our own fault. That is where the betrayal of the Irish people started and that is the betrayal that the Government has carried on and it can never recover from that.

The people have moved on. They have gone beyond the politics of this House. The people have no confidence in this Government and no matter what it does, it cannot restore it. The only thing it can do is to go to the country, have an election and let the people elect a Government that will respect them, respect their rights, respect their vote and act on their behalf and not on the behalf of its master in Europe to betray the people. That is what it has failed to do and that is why the citizens have lost confidence in it and why we say it must go now.

Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)
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The U-turn the Government did on the economy is not a matter of shame but a matter of pride. When the Taoiseach talks to us about the figures, which he did today, he ignores the fact, to which Deputy Halligan referred, that many of us go into our constituencies and see hard cases on a daily basis. Imagine them reading the Taoiseach's speech today telling them not to worry that the deficit targets have been met, unemployment is down and the emigration figure is improving. Imagine telling that to people at the airport at Christmas saying goodbye to their third child going to Australia forever.

There is a complete disconnect between what is happening on the ground and what was in the Taoiseach's speech, which could easily have been written in the corridors of IBEC or the banks. I forgive the Taoiseach for his U-turn because I have got used to them. He did not do the easy bits; he did the hard bits. I do not forgive him for the fact he never tackled those great reforms he promised so openly. The easy bits, the bits that do not cost money, were never touched. What happened to the reform of the quangos? What happened to the reform of the banks? Bank boards are still picking insiders like there is no tomorrow. In his manifesto, the Taoiseach promised that the quangos would be reformed, the boards would be moved and there would be cost savings.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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All done.

Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)
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That did not happened at all because the Minister, Deputy Howlin, with his reforms, still comes back with the same old formula. Ministers, like himself, are still appointing their cronies to the boards of semi-State bodies. Maybe the Minister, Deputy Howlin, has never heard of John McNulty and perhaps that issue did not reach his ears. As Deputy Martin said, the response to that has been another bogus little committee to once again look at Seanad reform and to allow Ministers appoint their own people to boards and to the Senate, as they have always done.

Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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Methinks the Minister, Deputy Howlin, doth protest too much. If anybody was in any doubt about how out of touch this Government is, he or she would be shattered by the content and demeanour of what we have been subjected to today. That the Taoiseach would attempt to use elderly women, the victims of symphysiotomy, who were butchered in their youth as an example of how great his Government has been is a continuation of that abuse when he knows that as we sit here, they are assembled across the road with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and Amnesty International to plead for the Government to overturn the scheme it has thrown in front of them. That is a graphic illustration of how utterly out of touch this Government is.

It is the case that it says one thing but the reality is entirely different for people outside these gates. I do not agree with the people who say this Government has not achieved anything. It has achieved something that nobody believed would ever be possible. It has succeeded in galvanising an opposition throughout this country from the self-employed to struggling farmers to unemployed people to people who have seen their children leave these shores and in unleashing a mass movement which is unprecedented in modern times in absolute opposition to the policies of this Government, best presented in its religious adherence to the toxic brand and dead duck, which is Irish Water.

The Government has pauperised and penalised the middle ground and driven them out of the ranks where perhaps they would have traditionally supported it into an opposition that is united against it. If the Government is as confident as it says it is - a confidence that was very much belied by the worried faces and sourpusses behind the Taoiseach earlier - end this lame duck Administration and go to the people.

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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To speak in favour of this motion, expressing confidence in the Taoiseach and the Government, offers an opportunity to answer one of the easiest and one of the most damaging accusations that can be put to a politician, which is "You’re all the same." By its actions in recent weeks, Sinn Féin has established how untrue that accusation is. We are not all the same. We are not even similar – not in background, not in motivation and not in ideology. Above all, we are not the same when it comes to our responsibilities as public representatives.

I got into politics because, having been a social worker and an activist on women's issues, I desperately wanted to improve the life prospects of children and families under pressure and to create a society that was just and where people had real opportunity. I do my job every day for that reason, as do my colleagues in government. It is because I believe that my responsibilities to children and families under pressure are so important, I would not engage in the cheap shot headline-grabbing and play-acting that characterises Sinn Féin and others. Play-acting is easy. Doing the right thing by the Irish people is not easy. It is not easy in the middle of the worst financial crisis ever faced by this country.

The people of Ireland have suffered greatly, of which there can be no doubt. When I stand on the doorsteps of my constituency and listen to individuals and families and listen to the stories of good people coping with one financial pressure after another, I am left in no doubt of their struggles. We are in touch. The one-sided narrative presented by Sinn Féin and others is that, in some way, the Government decided to impose tough decisions on its own people for the sake of it. That is not so.

Instead, this Government, led by the Taoiseach, Deputy Kenny, took tough decisions in order to save Ireland from the consequences of economic collapse. The Taoiseach and the Government held back the threat of disorder and chaos – economic and social chaos as witnessed elsewhere.

Political parties and individuals who trade in Toytown economics shrug that off. I cannot do that. I am in politics because of what I want to do, which is to protectfamilies and children. I am committed to policies that keep disorder at bay and that ensure our services are kept working so that in better times they can be further developed for our people. Funding services and dealing with social issues require a functioning economy.

I notice Deputy Adams said very little about the economy and how well it is functioning. I would say that of other more recent contributors to the debate also. All of that was under threat and this Government fought that threat and won. It made Ireland a case study in economic recovery because the people of Ireland chose to believe in the diligence, the decency and the honour of the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny. They knew he was not a sound-bite and headline man because they knew we were not in a time when sound-bites and headlines mattered. This was down to the wire, as has been clearly illustrated in the speeches today. This was a time to look past show business politics. It was a time for people to trust and to hope for better times ahead. The people did that and we did what they empowered us to do under the firm leadership of a man not intimidated by the terror of the collapse – the Taoiseach.

We retrieved our financial sovereignty; we pulled our finances back from manifest disaster; and contrary to the narrative out there, we have been one of the most reforming Governments in the history of the State. However, we went further and we delivered on our promise to create the conditions that would create jobs.

For 28 months in a row the unemployment rate has fallen. The Government target of creating 100,000 jobs by 2016 will not only be met, but exceeded, based on current growth levels and job creation. This is not happening by accident. It is the result of a determined effort by, and the policies of, this Government. We have rebuilt Ireland’s international standing. We have implemented our Action Plan for Jobs. We have pursued sector-specific initiatives such as the 9% VAT rate. In three separate deals, the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, working with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, secured a reduction in the high interest rates on EU loan repayments, cancelled the Anglo Irish Bank promissory notes and secured agreement to pay back International Monetary Fund, IMF, loans early.

Fixing Ireland’s finances was immeasurably difficult but we have done that. Let us not forget why. At the beginning, when we took over, the job situation was so bad that people queued for the prospect of even a temporary, basic-pay position. It was so bad, couples in their 20s and 30s, looking at their children and their teenagers, had to assume the worst, that they would be forced to emigrate, as their peers had to emigrate in order to find work. That was the position at the beginning but from the start, we promised we would find ways to create jobs, and create them we did. The reality, now, and let us neither miss nor forget it, is that, thanks to the strong, realistic hand of this Government, the children who were four and five when disaster struck, the teenagers who were 13 and 14 have a radically improved chance of getting a job, developing a career and building a life for themselves in Ireland. That is never recognised by the Opposition or commented on.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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This motion has been tabled in response to yet another Sinn Féin political stunt, another cynical move for easy headlines, more sound bites with the usual aim in mind: to encourage discontent, stoke up anger and resentment, and divide communities, which is what Sinn Féin has thrived on in this State for the past few years. That is the hypocrisy of those opposite who attempt to undermine the mandate and legitimacy of a Government elected with a larger democratic majority than any other in the history of the State to do the very difficult job of cleaning up a Fianna Fáil created crisis that virtually broke Ireland and rebuild a new future that is fairer and more sustainable. The proposed motion of no confidence was the latest Sinn Féin kangaroo court, setting itself up as judge and jury, this time of the Government and Taoiseach, as if Sinn Féin was the only representative of the people. Sinn Féin talks about transparency, fairness, new politics and of course its Ireland of equals, yet it protects its own hard men, some of whom are rapists and child abusers. As always, a different standard applies to Sinn Féin soldiers, when the spotlight is on them for openness and transparency and justice, even relating to incidents long after the Good Friday Agreement. A man who claims such loyalty to his cause that he even denies his own involvement in it demands a new honesty and transparency in the politics of his Ireland of equals - what a hypocrite. His deputy leader claims to lead the fight on sexual abuse and women’s rights but at the same time turns her back when challenged to deal with the disgraceful failings of her own party exposed by a brave young woman who was the victim of her people, all to protect and maintain a loyalty to her leader. We have had enough of that hypocrisy, these stunts, the sit-ins, the aggressive promotion of divisions within society that Sinn Féin promotes as its new way of politics.

Meanwhile, the Taoiseach and this Government are focused on providing a better future here and in Northern Ireland, on reform, recovery, job creation, supporting families, and vulnerable people who have suffered through hard times. Through some of the toughest times this country has ever faced our Taoiseach has provided leadership, optimism and an unfailing belief that our country can and will recover when many others opposite were giving up and despairing of the future. We do not have a perfect track record, not by a long shot, but we have achieved, as a Government, under the stewardship of the Taoiseach and Tánaiste, and our record stands for itself, if people are honest in their judgment, with 80,000 jobs created since 2012, unemployment at the lowest rate since 2009, an exit from the enforced bailout, a return to strong economic growth - the strongest now in the European Union - and a reduction in the tax burden for low and middle income earners for the first time in seven years. On social issues, such as the Cloyne diocese, the Magdalen laundries, marriage equality, homelessness, the rights of children, gender balance and much more, the Taoiseach has demonstrated a humanity and openmindedness to bring about real change for people who have been wronged and ignored by successive Governments.

This Government will learn from its mistakes. We have made more than we should have, particularly this year. We will try harder, motivated by what is right for Ireland and all our people, as opposed to trying to divide society. While others will continue to try to undermine the progress and stability this Government has fought so hard and asked people to make sacrifices to build, Sinn Féin will try to replace it with something much more sinister, divisive and negative for the future of our country. We will work to bring people together behind a new vision of a changed, not perfect, but much better Ireland. We will finish the job that people elected us to do over the next 15 months or so. The Taoiseach and Tánaiste are leading that effort and have my full support and the support of both parties in government in this motion.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The motion before us here today states: “That Dáil Éireann reaffirms its confidence in the Taoiseach and in the Government.” The Taoiseach should enjoy his victory today when he wins this vote but he should remember it is a pyrrhic victory. It will not last long. History shows that many who feel the need to have a vote of confidence in themselves and their leaders come to a sticky end not too long after. This pyrrhic victory will give the Taoiseach a glow for this evening but the real test will be in the ballot box. I believe the public has already decided it has no confidence in this Government. The Taoiseach will win today. He should enjoy his hour of glory.

The people are cross because the Taoiseach promised a democratic revolution. He had, as Minister after Minister has said, the biggest majority in the history of the State but he squandered it. People expected more from him. He promised them more. He promised a democratic revolution but the public got nothing. It was short-changed and let down. This is why people are not happy with how politics is conducted in Ireland. The public, as we have seen in election after election, is not happy with any of the established political parties. That is in part because the two parties to which it gave the biggest mandate since the foundation of the State have let it down badly in promising reform and not delivering it.

People expected honesty and openness as the hallmark of this Government but not even the Cabinet is in the loop for some major decisions of the Economic Management Council. We have seen on some occasions, whether to do with banking or other EU issues, the Minister for Finance reading a script in the Chamber and members of the Government are so far excluded they do not know what will be on the next page. Not only is there no honesty and openness, but that does not even apply within the Cabinet ranks.

The Government has been in office for four years. For the first three years of that time the troika held its hand. It has been on its own for one year and what a year that has been. It has been a political disaster in the way the Government has managed the country. For the first three years its hands were tied. It had very little to do but show up and read pre-ordained scripts in here. It got along well for the first three years. People will disagree about whose programme it was implementing but it implemented a programme. Once it was left on its own the Government started to collapse almost immediately.

In the past year, the Taoiseach has been forced to sack the Minister for Justice and Equality, the Garda Commissioner, the confidential recipient and many other people. He has been forced to sack the Minister for Health and to exile the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. It is clear that the Government learned nothing during all of this. I introduced legislation in this House last week, on foot of the McNulty affair and the sham appointments to State boards, to put such appointments on a statutory footing. I do not want them to be made by way of guidelines, which is what the Government is determined to do so that it can avoid a statutory process.

The medical card fiasco has continued in the past year. The probity review that was announced 14 months ago as part of the October 2013 budget has caused havoc in the health cards system. We have not got over that yet. The Minister is still talking about trying to provide for more discretion at local level, but that has not happened to date. One of the problems with this Government is that it does not deliver on its promises. One of the reasons for that is that all of its budgets have been regressive. It has had options, but each year it has chosen to impose most of its adjustments on front-line services that affect people who are waiting to access accident and emergency services, to get outpatient appointments or to move up the fair deal waiting list.

The Government established the new Department of Children and Youth Affairs and held a referendum on children's rights. It blew that referendum. It has yet to be enacted because of the actions of the Taoiseach's office, the offices of certain Ministers or certain Government offices in seeking to use the people's money to influence how they should vote in the referendum. That referendum has not yet been implemented. I applauded the establishment of the new Department, which was outstanding. However, approximately 800 children are sleeping out of home tonight. They are in hotel rooms and bed and breakfasts. They are carrying their bags up and down the stairs. They do not know where they will be for Christmas. What kind of stress is that putting on their mothers and fathers? That is what this Department of Children and Youth Affairs is doing for children. It is doing very little. The impact on families is extraordinary.

I met a lady in Mountrath this morning before I came to the House for this debate. She told me she will scream if she hears once more that Ireland is out of recession. The Government has been screaming at the people that the country is out of recession, but the majority of people have not felt that in their own pockets. I know there is more spending in the shops. One third of the population is probably doing well. They probably have more money, but two thirds of people do not.

The Government also established the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and gave it the simple job of drawing up accurate budgets and expenditure plans.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Simple, yes.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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In 2012, after the establishment of the new Department, we had the biggest overrun in Government expenditure since the foundation of the State. That was exceeded last week when Supplementary Estimates of €1.184 billion had to be introduced to make up for the flawed budget of 13 months ago. We told the Minister the day that budget was introduced that the budget and Estimates process was flawed. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has failed and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs has done nothing for children yet. I know new agencies have been set up, but that does not help the children who are sleeping in bed and breakfasts tonight.

Irish Water, which is a Fine Gael brainchild, was established during the course of this year. The Government promised to abolish quangos, but it did the exact opposite. We now have the biggest quango to be set up in living memory. It must be remembered that people are already paying for water services. The extra €140 million that will come in from this, after the payments from the Department of Social Protection are taken into consideration, is no longer fundamental to the national finances. That €140 million is not necessary. It is not worth the €700 million that the Government is sinking into the ground on meters or the amount of money it is paying to consultants. Why do we have this? The Government has started to use a new phrase. It says it is going to repair the water leaks off balance sheet and fix our water supply off balance sheet.

The Government promised in its Budget Statement two months ago that it would provide €2.6 billion for social housing over the next three years. Much of that is to be off balance sheet. We will no longer build social houses from our own resources as we have done since foundation of the State. It now seems that a social house can be built only if it is off balance sheet. The Government had announced that €3.8 billion would be provided for these purposes over an extended period. Two weeks ago, the Minister, Deputy Kelly, said that much of this will be off balance sheet. The Government's answer to everything is off balance sheet. The second half of its equation is tax cuts for the wealthy. This Government is the only one that is off balance sheet. People's water bills are not off their balance sheets. They will come out of their bank accounts. The homeless people and the difficulties on the street are not off balance sheet. The Government tries to outsource the solutions to such problems because it does not want to handle them directly.

Over the past two months, the Government has followed its mantra of tax cuts for the wealthy and off balance sheet solutions. The people of Ireland will not buy that. The Government made too many promises. The Taoiseach is looking after his own. Fine Gael people will probably thank him for that. In the budget, the Government announced a 1% cut in the top rate of tax paid by the highest earners in the country. It has promised a further 1% cut ten months out from the next budget. I never before heard of a tax announcement being made ten months before a budget. The Government's economic emphasis is on further tax cuts for the people at the highest income levels. More off balance sheet solutions will probably be proposed to deal with problems like homelessness, housing and water services.

This is a divisive and regressive Government. Every budget it has introduced has been socially and economically regressive. The burden of the adjustment in each of its budgets has been more heavily weighted in favour of expenditure cuts than taxation measures. Each of the Government's budgets has been unfair. They have lacked fairness. I actually think that is what Fine Gael wants. Fine Gael is happy with this divisive measure. It has made a divided society. I believe it suits some of the Members opposite to have a divided society. We saw that in the political pong-pong here this afternoon. They want a chasm in society. They do not want a homogenous middle ground. Most Irish people like to be in the centre. The Government wants a battle of the right and left. I believe it wants a divided society. It has divided society. However, the people of Ireland are very united in their determination to vote no confidence in Fine Gael and the Labour Party at the ballot box the next time they get an opportunity to do so.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister, Deputy Howlin, is sharing time with the Minister, Deputy Bruton.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I am pleased to have a brief opportunity to contribute to this debate, regardless of how ill-conceived the tabling of this motion of no confidence was. I was struck last week by a line in a piece about W.T. Cosgrave by the historian Michael Laffan, in which the endeavours of the last six years to rescue the State were compared to the task faced by Cosgrave in establishing the State in the first instance. There is a tendency in some quarters to talk down this country. In time, we will look back on the collective effort of the people of Ireland to rescue this country and we will be very proud of it. It will be seen as one of democratic Ireland's greatest achievements. Ireland has gone from being one of Europe’s sick men - the so-called PIIGS - to being the fastest growing economy in Europe. This real success is a real tribute to the fortitude of the Irish people.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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And to yourself, Brendan.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I accept that we have more to do and issues to resolve. That was the case during the Celtic tiger years and it is surely the case now after six years of fiscal retraction. The Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, has led our national recovery alongside the former Tánaiste, Deputy Gilmore, and the current Tánaiste, Deputy Burton. The Taoiseach will go down in history as one of our finest taoisigh. He will retire with a record of real and substantial achievement. I am proud to have served in his Government. We have turned around the State's economic fortunes. We have been a real reforming Government. I am proud to have placed legislation supporting whistleblowers on the Statute Book for the first time and to have restored the freedom of information regime in the way it was originally designed in the 1990s. We have extended and strengthened the powers of the Ombudsman. This House sits longer than at any stage previously in our history. Contrary to popular belief, the guillotine is practically redundant. For the first time in decades, councillors at local government level are sitting down to make real decisions on the deployment of resources. That process, of itself, has been revealing.

The no confidence motion was tabled by an unholy alliance of those who created the mess from which we are recovering and those who are determined to make it worse. It is a limp affair, offered by parties that are going through the motions.

Sinn Féin, the party led by the "Leader for Life", the Enver Hoxha of Irish political life, voted for the bank guarantee, socialising banking debt on the backs of the Irish people. Far from the radical party of the left, it proved to be the bankers' poodle on the one occasion when it really mattered.

It is joined by the real author of our financial collapse, Fianna Fáil, which is led by a man who almost stuck it out to the end before deserting that particular sinking ship. Having joined together to back this motion, are they offering an alternative Government? Should this Dáil vote itself into a general election today? They are not. Their policy alternatives are not real, but they know that. Nor are they even prepared to ally themselves together to form a Government. Hardly a day goes by when the leaders opposite rule out sharing power with each other. It is bizarre that the only party that all of the parties opposite want to share power with is my own. They are joined by the Independents, who seem to spend most of their time discussing how to lose their independence through some form of alliance. I listened with interest to their new apparent leader, the reinvented cheerleader of Anglo Irish Bank, Deputy Ross.

The Opposition tabled not so much a motion of no confidence in the Government as a motion rejecting governance itself. Government is a place where hard decisions are made. Democracy is not some form of juvenile game where individuals pursue heightened forms of personal purity. Democracy is the process by which people with competing interests and perspectives come together as adults to resolve real differences and take decisions, supported by the majority and protective of the minority.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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And keep their mandate.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputies opposing this motion are asking the people to embrace anarchy and to take another chance with chaos. As a people, we have stared down that barrel before, we have seen the track record of the people opposite, and we will not be going back there.

This Fine Gael-Labour Government has made real mistakes. We know and have said that. No doubt, we have actually made more. However, on the big question, the most fundamental challenge that faced this or any Government of recent times, we have steered the ship of State into the harbour from the rocks on which it was left foundering by our predecessors. I, for one, am proud to be part of this Government.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Nonsense.

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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Is the Minister sure it is Ireland he is talking about?

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I honestly say that the Taoiseach has exceeded all expectations. I can say that with some justification, as I have previously been one of his critics. He has been immensely strong at a time when we needed someone to step up, make hard decisions and understand people. There is no one better than the Taoiseach at understanding people, be they the women of the Magdalen laundries or the homeless on our streets. He is willing to go out and talk to them. He does not hide away. He is not out of touch. He has that humanity, but he also has an understanding of the considerable task that we faced as a country three years ago. It was an extraordinary time. It is easy to forget that 300,000 jobs had been wiped out. Some 20% of private sector jobs disappeared overnight. We were on the hook for €64 billion and were spending 50% more than we were taking in in revenue.

Parties opposite state that they are anti-austerity. Everyone is anti-austerity, but policies based on spending one's way out of trouble when one is already spending 50% more than one is accruing in revenue are madness. Those were the strategies being offered by the benches opposite. They continued in that vein. Year after year, Sinn Féin has stated that it would make 80% of the adjustment on the tax side. This would have meant the extraction of €5 billion more in taxes from our people and businesses during the past four years. We would not have had an economy in recovery.

Instead, the Taoiseach understood that we could not build over the old fault lines of the property culture left by Fianna Fáil. We needed to create entirely new sectors. He has driven the hunger to find those sectors and to build a strong economy on a sustainable basis. Not only have we created 80,000 jobs, which the rhetoric of those opposite completely denies, but they are located in every region. Some 94% of these are full-time jobs in sustainable sectors, not part-time, yellow pack jobs. We will create more. These jobs are fixing people's lives. This is not just about statistics. It is about people who can get up in the morning with a purpose and the ability to fulfil their potential. They can provide incomes for themselves and their loved ones. They can also provide money to help us as a Government to address some of the issues on our streets. We see them all of the time. Homelessness is the issue of today, but there are many others in the health sector that we need to be able to fix.

Remarkably, the recent budget, which was slated by the troika for not taking a further €2 billion out of our economy through taxes and spending cuts, saw us restoring €1 billion thanks to our progress. It is not a lot and people's patience is strained to breaking point at times, but it points to the direction in which the country is going. We can realistically have confidence in the vision that the Taoiseach so often articulates about wanting a country in which people can live and grow old in dignity and our young people have a future. We are creating that. When we entered office, net emigration was 34,000 people. That rate has decreased by 30%, but we are nowhere near where we need to be. We want the elimination of net emigration. We want any young person who wants to make his or her future in Ireland to have that opportunity.

When I listen to the parties opposite, I never hear a word about the importance of enterprise. The truth is that it is enterprise that will create employment. There is no Sinn Féin policy on enterprise. There is no Independent policy on enterprise. They believe that it just grows on trees, that they can load more taxes on employers and workers and do not have to create an environment that is good for start-ups but that it will all still happen anyway. They do not believe that they have to create an environment in which external investors, who once fled the country in their droves, are willing to invest money. One must work at these factors day in, day out. That is what the Taoiseach has driven in our economy. His enthusiasm and commitment have rallied people to find the energy to drive change. It is remarkable.

I am a long time in politics and have seen many glossy statements of intent being published by Ministers in a blaze of glory, only to see them shrink away when things fail. Under the Taoiseach's guidance, everyone is held to account for delivering on commitments. That is at the heart of our Action Plan for Jobs, Pathways to Work and every one of our strategies. Accountability represents a major change. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, is driving real change in our public service. We can be confident that we will not only have more resources, but that we will have a public service that has the ability to be performance driven. This is a fantastic achievement of the Government. It is what we will need in the coming five years as we continue to grapple with high levels of unemployment and create enterprise in new areas that are as yet undreamt of. We need the sort of Government that the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have been offering. I am proud to be a part of that and to vote and speak in support of it.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Despite the Taoiseach's best efforts today, his language is jaded. So is his Government. The one point of clarification that has emerged is that all is well with him and the Tánaiste. I can only anticipate the sigh of relief across the country that they are playing happy families and having robust debates while none the less coming out on the same side of every argument. If backslapping was an Olympic sport, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste would undoubtedly be gold medalists. I dare say that their Front Bench would take silver and bronze, too.

The Taoiseach clings to empty, meaningless refrains, asserting his commitment to fairness, social recovery and a social dividend. Who exactly does he think he is fooling? The Government's demonstrable track record is one of deepening inequality. This means children living in poverty and sleeping in bed and breakfasts, hotels and hostels. It means people sleeping on the streets.

It means families living in poverty. It means vast numbers of people struggling just to get by, worrying night after night about their basic household bills. That is the collective achievement of Ministers opposite. If this is what they call success, I only hope we never witness what they might regard as failure. I note that the Minister, Deputy Howlin, in confessing to having made some mistakes, vows that the Government will go and make some more. I have no doubt that will send a chill down many people's spines.

The Taoiseach harked back to 2011 in his opening remarks, recalling a time when people were "dazed" and "horrified". It might interest him to know that people remain dazed - dazed by his relentless austerity, dazed by his detachment from the real lives and struggles of ordinary people. The public also remains horrified - horrified, above all, at the prospect of another year or more of this Government. The people want the Taoiseach and his Ministers to go, and they would like them to do so quickly and with some grace. However, the people are also prepared to face down the Taoiseach and his Government. The people are defiant and they have had their fill of Ministers' soundbites, negativity and misinformation. Tomorrow, Members opposite will see, at the gates of this building, the latest manifestation of that defiance. In order to prevent panic among the ranks of Government, I assure the Taoiseach, on the people's behalf, that this is not a stunt designed to distract attention from other pressing matters. Tomorrow will be a day of reckoning when the people's demand for the abolition of domestic water charges will ring across this city. Tomorrow, the people's demand for water as a human right will echo across Dublin and beyond. Will the Taoiseach and Tánaiste listen to that message? Will they hear the people's simple messages or will they consider their demand to be ill conceived, as ill conceived as this motion which proclaims this Administration's competence to govern?

The Minister, Deputy Howlin, always strikes a very lofty tone when he talks about reform. However, what is notable in the response from the Government is the almost hysterical reaction when it is challenged and called to account. The Tánaiste congratulated herself and the Taoiseach earlier on their fight against unemployment. Both she and the Taoiseach placed inflated figures regarding job creation on the record. The fact is, as the Taoiseach knows, that for every job created by this Government, five people have emigrated. The number of young people in employment is 15,500 lower than it was in 2011. We have the highest rate of low-paid jobs in the OECD. We have the third highest rate of underemployment across the EU 28. How is that for Toytown economics, to use the phrase of the Minister, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald? For people who live in the real world, these facts are the evidence of poor economic policy, poor economic planning and poor economic delivery.

The Taoiseach's soundbites regarding Ireland's "cold and heartless past" and his claim to have dealt with past injustices inflicted by the State on the watch of his party and others do not tally with the reality. He mentioned the women of the Magdalen laundries. The truth is that the McAleese initiative and report was a whitewash. The United Nations has recognised that. The truth is that the penny-pinching ex gratiascheme the Government has offered to these women is utterly miserly. The truth is that the similar ex gratiascheme afforded to survivors of symphisiotomy demonstrates again a disregard in real terms for the experiences and trauma of the women affected. Needless to say, this Government's treatment of Louise O'Keeffe and her pursuit of justice laid bare its attitude towards dealing with victims.

I have been and remain a champion for all those who have suffered these types of injustices, every single last one of them. I have made that repeatedly clear on the record of the House, but the Government does not want to hear it. It is more convenient for Ministers opposite to attack Sinn Féin and, in a very personal way, to attack me. If that is the route they choose, it is of course their choice. However, it will not deter me or my colleagues from doing the right thing. When it comes to dealing with victims of mother and baby homes, county homes, orphanages and children's homes - Catholic, Protestant and State-run - we will be holding the Government to account to provide a fully inclusive scheme to bring truth and justice to those people.

The central catch-cry for this Government was a democratic revolution and the notion of political reform. I have not seen any real evidence of that. The instinct of the Government remains one of absolute conservatism. When challenged, members of the Government close ranks. In fact, it is nearly regarded by them as something of an insult or presumption should somebody on this side of the House challenge the Government on the way politics operates and who are the political insiders as against the political insiders. That is very revealing and it has been revealed again in the course of this debate. The Taoiseach's colleagues in government have been hysterical in their attempts to defend him and his Administration. They demonstrate not just sensitivity but hyper-sensitivity to any form of criticism. Above all, they utterly discount any notion that there is an alternative to this Government. Indeed, that is really their problem with Sinn Féin and with people in the Independent ranks. They do not like the fact that a coherent alternative to their failed Government is now emerging.

I have no doubt that in the run-in to the election, Ministers will move heaven and earth, do and say anything to convince the people that as bad as they are, they are as good as it gets. Let me tell them that is not the case. Let me tell them that the people, in increasing numbers, are on to them and their scare tactics. They talk about "sinister fringes" when referring to decent citizens who come out and stand up for themselves and their families. The Taoiseach should call it a day now. He would be doing everybody a favour of he did. If he shares the commitment to democracy about which the Minister, Deputy Howlin, waxed lyrical a few moments ago, let him test that democratic principle. Let him go to the people and show he trusts their judgment and their capacity to make the right decisions for themselves, their families and their communities. The Taoiseach and his colleagues referred to the instability a political alternative might represent. The only instability that bothers any of them is the possibility that they might be removed from their cushy jobs. That is another fact which is clear for people to see.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, and the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy James Reilly, are sharing time.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I rise to support the motion of confidence in the Taoiseach and the Government. When we assess the contribution and performance of any government, we must look back to what its members said they would do if they were trusted by the people with the reins of office. We said we would repair the public finances and do so without increasing income tax. That has been done and our public finances are now in good order. Not only have we not increased income tax, we actually reduced it in the latest budget. We said we would create 100,000 jobs. We are now up to 80,000 and set to reach our target before the next election, with unemployment having fallen 24 months in a row. We said we would bring about a smaller and more efficient public sector, and that has been done. We said we would bring about fair care.

The first steps towards universal health care will be taken with the extension next year of GP care without fees to those over 70 and those under six, the oldest and youngest in society.

We stated that we would bring about a new politics. We do not always tell the story in respect of this matter very well and, before she left, Deputy McDonald asked us to provide examples of what we have done. I will provide three simple examples, namely: the ban on corporate donations, which has at long last ended the link between money and politics; the introduction of gender quotas for candidates, which will give people the choice to vote for women candidates in big numbers at the next election; and, very importantly, long overdue legislation to regulate lobbying and protect whistleblowers. These are just three examples but I could provide more.

Getting here has been very tough and the Irish people have made enormous sacrifices to bring the country to the position in which it now finds itself. That position is much better than the one the country occupied three and a half years ago. Once again, the future for Ireland is bright. We can look forward to a growing economy and increasing employment. A growing economy is not just for the sake of it. The reason we need the economy to grow is in order that we can put more money back into people's pockets and find the resources to invest in improving public services. We are only getting started and neither the future nor the economy are secure. We can fall backwards and there are risks. I, for one, do not want to take those risks by handing over control of the country to the parties opposite. A clear division is emerging in the House, with the Government parties on one side and a potential Opposition led by Sinn Féin, and including Fianna Fáil and perhaps some Independents, on the other. It is a division between those who saved Ireland from bankruptcy and those who either brought us to the brink of it or who would return us to that point. It is a division between those who would cut taxes in order to create employment and support enterprise and those who would raise taxes, destroy jobs and drive investment, business and professionals overseas. It is a division between those on this side of the House who respect the law, the Garda and stand up for law and order and those on the other side who engage in violent protest and intimidation and who traffic child abusers throughout the country.

Having outlined the position in respect of the Government, I now wish to turn to the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, in whom we are also being asked to vote confidence. When the history of the 21st century is written, the Taoiseach will be recognised for his leadership and for steering this country through the perilous waters of financial disaster left behind after years of mismanagement on the part of successive Fianna Fáil Governments. He is the pilot who weathered the storm. He did so by leading a coalition Government in making some of the most difficult decisions ever made in the history of the State. What he has done has not always been popular but good leadership does not always bring easy popularity. As the Taoiseach stated, our work is not yet done. We will continue to do the job of bringing prosperity back to the Irish people. Instead of trying to work with us for the good of the country, Sinn Féin and the parties opposite prefer to create ways to foment a storm of controversy. By doing so, they sacrifice good leadership for cheap political gain. If they were in charge, such an approach would wreck the country.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Yes.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Instead, we are fortunate to have in charge of this country a Government and a Taoiseach who can rise above such petty rancour and provide real leadership. That is why I have every confidence in the Taoiseach and the Government to pilot us through the remains of the storm and back into safe harbour.

I am honoured to support the motion.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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It is three and a half years - just over 1,300 days - since the Government came to office. It is worth recalling what things were like when we came to power. I refer to an article published in The Irish Timesin March 2011, which states:

Ireland’s appalling implosion still elicits a sense of astonishment. By far the prime response is to wonder how things became so bad so quickly in a country which seemed not long ago to have been doing so well. A small country held out as an exemplar for others is now quite the opposite. Changing that perception won’t be easy.

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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As Minister of State with responsibility for the diaspora, I have met many groups from across the globe. I refer to business groups and other organisations in various centres which provide support for Irish emigrants. The latter are completely supportive with regard to what is happening in this country at present. They are proud of our achievements and of being Irish. They are also proud of the fact that we are repaying our debts. Many of them are looking forward to returning to Ireland. That is a fact, not an exaggeration. Contrast this with what was happening in November 2010, when an article published in The Economiststated:

The public finances are in a dreadful mess. The government is on track to spend 12% of GDP more than it takes in taxes this year, even after spending cuts and tax rises worth €14.5 billion ($19.6 billion). The deficit will be a staggering 32% of GDP once injections of capital into broken banks are taken into account.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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On the day the Taoiseach was elected and this Government was formed, he talked about his gratitude and humility. He told us we stood on the threshold of fundamental change. He told us:

The new Government will tell the people the truth regardless of how unwelcome or difficult that might be. We will tell it constantly and unreservedly. It is the only way because the people always have a right to know.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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I have no confidence in this Government and will vote accordingly. I am sure the Members opposite will vote to express confidence in their own Government and this Dáil, elected in its majority based on false promises that have now been broken. So what? It should be very cold comfort for the Taoiseach. Right now right across the country, people are preparing in huge numbers to come to Dublin tomorrow to pass judgment on his Government. They are preparing to flood the streets and march to show that all the tricks and black propaganda about sinister elements, sinister fringe elements and dissident elements demonising the protests have not worked. They are marching to show they have not bought or eaten the baby carrot of a tiny concession of a delay in uncapped charges until 2019. They are marching to manifest their absolute lack of confidence in the Government. This will be far more powerful and significant than any vote that takes place in this Chamber today.

Earlier the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, said he has been touring the country speaking to people and that, in the main, they have been convinced by the new regime of so-called modest water charges. How many people will it take tomorrow for him and the rest of the Government to eat their words? How many people on the streets tomorrow will it take for the Government to abolish water charges? How many people will it take for it to read the writing on the wall and go? Its time has passed. Tomorrow, not today, is judgment day for this Government. I have absolute confidence that people will mobilise in massive numbers at 1 p.m. at the back of the Dáil. People should do whatever they can to be there. If they cannot be there until after work, they should come in after work. The judgment they will pass is clear: no confidence in the water charges and the Government. It has to be brought down through people power. Tomorrow will be the start of the end of the Taoiseach's Government and will herald the building of a new mass political movement that will put the needs of the 99% before the interests and profits of the 1% and struggle to reshape our society.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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The Dáil has been a different place for the past few months. There seems to be different mood in here, and there does not seem to be as much work being done. There is less legislation being passed and it is felt there is an election coming at some stage. It is felt that the Government is in its final days.

The Taoiseach keeps telling us he has made Ireland a great country to do business in once again and that the economy is booming. It is very significant that the Government does not seem to have a problem with the fact that Ireland has the fastest-rising rate of child poverty in Europe. That is very significant in terms of how things have been done. The Taoiseach referred earlier to community. Sadly, most communities do not feel the benefits of the past four years.

The Government side referred to the Magdalen laundries and symphysiotomy. Truth be told, however, the Government was dragged kicking and screaming to these issues, and they are still not resolved. We all know individuals such as Fr. Peter McVerry have been screaming from the rooftops about homelessness for four years but someone had to die in a doorway just down the road before it registered. The housing problem has been staring us in the face for four years. We really have not done much about it yet, and we have not learned the lessons to be learned from the problems that were so stark during the crisis.

The body language today has not been good. The Taoiseach's job is a very difficult one and cannot be easy. It is only natural that it is very stressful. The Taoiseach is now showing the stress of the job; it must be very difficult. I do not believe the next 12 months will be good to or for him, nor will they be good for the people. I really believe it is time to call a halt to it. The idea of tabling a motion of confidence in the Government is a bit hollow. Nobody should do it, no matter what anyone thinks of the Government's performance. It is not for us here to say whether the Government is the best or worst; it is only the people who can decide that. The sooner, the better.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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On seeing the Taoiseach table a motion of confidence today, I have to compare him to Comical Ali claiming he was winning a war when the tanks were rolling into Baghdad. The speeches I heard today were utterly delusional. When the Taoiseach believes he has saved the taxpayers billions of euro, the rest of us see that he has bailed out bondholders he said he would burn during his election campaign. When he sees reconstructed, stable banks, the rest of us see struggling mortgage holders who never got any help from this Government and who never got a write-down on inflated house prices. When the Taoiseach says Ireland is the best small country in the world in which to do business, tens of thousands of people regard it as the best small country to leave. I could not believe it when the Taoiseach said Ireland should never be a cold house for its people. He said so in the midst of the biggest housing emergency this State has ever known and about which the Government is doing little or nothing.

The Taoiseach's claim to be making progress on women's rights is also delusional. All we see is a medieval anti-abortion law. The Government has not the guts to take on this issue. I refer in particular to the Labour Party, whose members are sitting beside the Taoiseach. The law criminalises women for their decisions.

The claim of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, that not guillotining debate is one of democratic Ireland's greatest achievements is laughable.

On Friday, there was nobody sitting on the Government benches. They let the clock run down on the debate. That is the new tactic.

The charade that the Government is going through today is irrelevant. The real politics will be tomorrow, when I guarantee tens of thousands of people will be on the streets outside the gates of Leinster House to deliver the real no-confidence vote in the Taoiseach. In their elaborate speeches, the Ministers did not mention the dreaded words "water charges" once. Even at this eleventh hour, the Taoiseach could save himself and abolish the water charges. I do not know whether it would be enough because people have reached the stage where they want the water charges to go and they want the Taoiseach to go.

I raised the question a couple of weeks ago whether the Taoiseach or the Tánaiste were Del Boy or Rodney in trying to sell the dodgy water charges at a discount. Today, I see the Taoiseach is Trigger, in that he is living in a completely different universe from the thousands of people who will be on the streets outside this building tomorrow.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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In 2011, the people, especially in the west, went to the polls in anticipation of a new era, a more transparent way with fewer quangos and a listening ear. A few months later that same year, in Roscommon, east Galway and Leitrim, the people who had received a commitment a few months earlier by letter and a recorded interview got the shock of their lives when they heard that the accident and emergency department that they needed would be closed. With a broken promise, the doors closed. Medical doctors were replaced by spin doctors and the people in all that area were left to contend with two hours travelling to a hospital.

In the same year, I received a telephone call at 11.45 p.m. asking whether we would participate in a peatlands forum. I spoke to the Taoiseach for a while and I said that whatever could help a bad situation, we would try to make it work. The conclusions of that forum are there but what those who gave of their time voluntarily got two or three months later was helicopters, planes, emergency response units and the Garda all around them calling them criminals.

In the same era, we were told that not one red cent would be given away - Dublin's way or Frankfurt's way - and then we heard of a something called a game changer. When that part of history is now written, we see the reality. The people have been bullied. The Government and our representatives in Europe were not the whistleblowers for their people.

Only this week, I spoke to a young child. Some 380 letters have come to the west this week about evictions and all they want for Christmas is a home. The reality in education is the drop in capitation grants. We heard pledges on student fees, but what has happened is they have gone up. Europe, aided and abetted by the Government, is dictating the pace.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Heather Humphreys, is sharing time with the Ministers of State, Deputies Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and Michael Ring.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The single greatest challenge facing the Government when we took office in March 2011 was to bring the economy back from the brink. Members should cast their minds back to how bad things were. This country was in a bailout situation and the people were left with a legacy of debt that will take decades to eradicate. In January 2011, we were locked out of the international markets and our reputation in Europe was in tatters. In January 2011, unemployment levels were literally spiralling out of control. In the three years prior to 2011, 250,000 jobs had been lost, that is, approximately 7,000 jobs a month. In January 2011, 7,000 people every month were having their lives thrown in turmoil and uncertainty due to unemployment.

Overcoming these incredible challenges not only required hard work and the support and sacrifice of the Irish people. It required the strong leadership that has been delivered by Deputy Enda Kenny since 2011. Since becoming Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny has worked tirelessly to restore this country's sovereignty, to bring back prosperity and to make Ireland once again a great place in which to raise a family.

The economy, which was in such a perilous state just three and a half years ago, is coming back. Sometimes I think our international colleagues are much more willing to recognise this than we are ourselves. According to the European Commission, Ireland will be the fastest growing economy in Europe this year, and Forbesmagazine declared Ireland the best small country in the world in which to do business. We are well on track to exceed our target of creating 100,000 new jobs by 2016, a target that was originally scoffed at by the Opposition. Unemployment is at its lowest level in five years.

In my Department, I am extremely glad to be in a position to be increasing funding for the arts for the first time in six years. The Government is determined to continue with this progress. Unfortunately, the Opposition is focused on negativity, determined to do down the achievements of the people of this country who have shown such resolve to succeed. The Government fully recognises that the people have had an extremely difficult number of years. That is why, from January, every household with somebody in full-time work will be a bit better off.

As for the great populist party, Sinn Féin want to hike up taxes and destroy our jobs recovery. Farmers, the self-employed and those with savings should be wary of what a Sinn Féin Government would mean. They want to tax the economy out of existence. For example, a farmer with land worth €1 million, which is approximately 100 acres, and who might only earn between €15,000 and €20,000 a year from that land, would be liable for a wealth tax under Sinn Féin. Their high tax policies would drive foreign direct investment out of this country and unfairly penalise entrepreneurs, resulting in unemployment.

As has often been said, good leadership is humility with a strong resolve to succeed. The Taoiseach has shown humility in the face of adversity and an absolute unwavering resolve to succeed for the betterment of this country and its people. It is in the best interest of the economy and society that the Government stays the course and continues to deliver a better standard of living for all the people in the State. We will continue with this job. We will be undeterred by the stunts, the bogus policies and the empty rhetoric of those on the Opposition benches.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)
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This motion of confidence in the Taoiseach and the Government has been tabled in response to Sinn Féin's motion of no confidence.

I take the opportunity to nail this idea that Sinn Féin is a left-wing party. Sinn Féin is an extremist nationalist party. What extremist nationalist parties across Europe do is attach their logo to everything that is popular and reject everything that is unpopular in order to get nationalist sentiment going. When they think the bank guarantee is popular, they support that and then they pretend that they did not. They say defaulting is a good idea even though we know the devastating effect that would have had on social protection, on public service jobs and on the country in general. That is not a left-wing position.

Sinn Féin states it is in favour of a wealth tax. The property tax is a wealth tax but, of course, Sinn Féin cannot see that. Only two months ago, when Labour councillors and Green Party councillors on Dublin City Council suggested that rather than having a 15% reduction in the property tax in Dublin city they would have a 7.5% reduction and have €4 million put into homeless services, Sinn Féin councillors voted against it. When faced with either a populist decision on a real wealth tax and a populist decision of defending the homeless, they opted for the populist decision on a wealth tax. They cannot get their head around the fact that the property tax is a wealth tax and they voted to reduce it by 15%, meaning that the average €1 million home owner in Dublin city got €375 back while the homeless of Dublin did not get the €4 million that we hoped they would get.

Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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We will bring in a different tax.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)
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That is Sinn Féin populist politics.

If Sinn Féin members believe in justice, they should talk to the family of Robert McCartney and the family of Paul Quinn. They say they are in favour of gender equality. They should talk to Maíria Cahill and her family and listen to what she thinks about their protestations on gender equality.

Sinn Féin never talks about education. The left-wing credentials of my party is that we teach children to read. We put literacy at the heart of everything we do. What Sinn Féin does in the Republic and in Northern Ireland is teach children to be angry and to hate. As soon as anyone suggests that the influence of the Catholic Church in education should be reduced in Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin goes right back to its sectarian mindset and ensures it will never stand over integrated education there.

Sinn Féin is not a left-wing party. It is an extremist Nationalist party. It has no interest in jobs, growth or the real interests of people in this country and it cannot abide the fact that the Labour Party in government with Fine Gael led by the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, is recovering people’s pay and self-worth and is putting them back into employment in a country of which people can be proud compared with the country we inherited four years ago.

Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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Call an election. Bring it on.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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It gives me great pleasure to speak this evening and to tell the people that I have full confidence in the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, and the Government. The reason I have full confidence in him is because he is honest, decent and there is no scandal surrounding him.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Hear, hear.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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He will put this country first. That is something Sinn Féin would never know anything about.

Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Hear, hear.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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We took the difficult decisions. I accept that people got hurt but we are ensuring we can create the necessary jobs in order that people in this country can get back to work and to give them an opportunity. One could ask whether Sinn Féin and the Independents want that. No, they want to see poverty and protest, protest, protest.

I heard Deputy Mary Lou McDonald talking about catchphrases. The Sinn Féin catchphrase is protest, protest, protest and to have protest meetings. Protest meetings do not resolve anything. A strong Government resolves issues. When we came into Government in 2011, the people of this country were frightened for their families, jobs and future. They wondered what would happen in the country. I compliment the Tánaiste, Deputy Joan Burton, and the Labour Party on the part they played in the revival of this country, not for the first time and not for the second time. This is about the fourth time Fine Gael and Labour had to save the country because of Fianna Fáil. If Sinn Féin gets into Government, I do not think I want to live in this country. I love this country and I love the people in it. I do not think the people of this country will make the mistake of putting Sinn Féin in government.

Let us speak about tourism. In 2011 when the Government came to power, tourism was in disarray. More than 220,000 are employed in tourism in every corner of this country. The Gathering was a success. The Wild Atlantic Way was a success. The greenways were a success. As Minister of State with responsibility for sport I have rolled out two rounds of the sports capital programme and we will have another round. Those in opposition do not want to see anything happen. The media has a job and a role to play. Many positive things are happening. I cover every corner of this country and I see Irish men and women with hope, confidence and an investment in this country. Many good things are happening in tourism, sport and volunteering. People are prepared to put their shoulder to the wheel to help young people in this country.

I say well done to the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, and the Tánaiste, Deputy Joan Burton. We will continue to do what is right for this country. Protest, protest, protest will not resolve anything.

Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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Up democracy.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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The Taoiseach tabled the motion of confidence in himself and his party. We should be talking about the real issues and problems. It was fair enough for the Taoiseach to table the motion. He believes in himself. From the rants of some of the Ministers, it is evident they have confidence in the Government too.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Mattie McGrath jumped from the sinking ship.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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The parties in government are the only ones who have confidence in the Government. They are in a cocoon in this House. I am not in favour of protest, protest, protest but one sees the reality when one meets people. The Taoiseach cannot go to a constituency or turn a sod when there is good news – I welcome good news – because people are protesting.

People gave the Taoiseach the finest mandate anyone ever got. I voted for him as Taoiseach but I am bitterly disappointed. One could ask how the people feel. The Taoiseach has completely turned his back on them all. I accept there was austerity but the Taoiseach looked after the fat cats. He promised reform, openness and transparency but he has been an abysmal failure in all of those areas. The Taoiseach packed boards with people and packed the courts with his cronies. He tried to get rid of the Seanad. When people rejected that, the Taoiseach said he got a wallop. It is nothing to the wallop he is going to get. The Taoiseach will get many wallops. I could use stronger words but I will not do so.

It is an awful pity that he did not live up to any part of his mandate. Promises were made to the families affected by the Omagh bomb, and justice was promised to the family of the priest murdered in Offaly. Promises were also made to many other groups. The Taoiseach met Ms Cahill, whom I salute for her bravery, but he could not meet the families who wanted justice for their loved ones who were killed. The Taoiseach has been an abject failure to those people. All the Taoiseach had to do was to meet them. He was able to meet homeless people last week. Did he have to wait until the unfortunate individual died last week on the street 50 yards from Leinster House to know there was a homeless problem?

Will the Taoiseach call in the banks? Will he rein in NAMA, which is making people homeless? It is terrorising a widow in my county whose late husband ended his own life. Will the Taoiseach call off the hound dogs of NAMA and the officials and ask them to stop terrorising that decent family in County Tipperary, of whom he should be aware and should know? The Minister of State, Deputy Tom Hayes, and others know the family. It is a shame and disgrace.

People have made sacrifices. We all bailed out the banks. I was one who voted for that. It was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made in my life. Now the banks are piddling down on top of us and walking on us, with sanction from the Taoiseach and the Minister. The banks are being let off with aplomb and the Government is patting them on the back. Up to 100,000 people are awaiting eviction. The Government talks about solving the problem of homelessness. The Government should try to sort out the problem by calling off the hound dogs of the banks, Revenue and NAMA – the biggest and most dangerous entity. I could use a word beginning with C to refer to NAMA but I will not use it in the House. It is a merry-go-round. It identifies properties but will not sell them for the price offered by decent people as it is keeping them to sell them at a knock-down price to friends and contacts. NAMA stinks and is rotten to the core. What it is doing to ordinary families is disgusting. I am very disappointed about that.

The Minister, Deputy Varadkar spoke in the debate. It goes to show how confused the Government is. He said the Taoiseach is the captain that could steady the ship on the ocean. Does he not know a captain flies an airplane and that a ship is navigated by somebody other than that? Neither we nor the people have any confidence in the Taoiseach to navigate the ship of state anywhere anymore because he has lost all credibility and respect. I heard the former Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, talk about what he did when he was in the Department of Health. He destroyed the health service. People are now waiting three months to access the fair deal scheme, an initiative into which we all bought and persuaded others to do, yet poor people are waiting for such a length of time. I heard a woman interviewed on radio today speak about her father who is 103 years of age who had been turfed out of a long-stay home and told to go someplace else because they cannot keep him. The Taoiseach taxed the hearse in the last budget and I said he would tax the shroud. I do not know why he did not do it in this budget, but he is doing it every day of the week because he took away the bereavement grant. He is also taxing medical card holders who spend more than 30 consecutive days in hospital after which they are charged so much a day, regardless of their income.

How low can the Taoiseach go? His party does not have a good record of looking after the ordinary, working class people of Ireland. He did look after them. He brought in honesty and openness and promoted his Ministers. He promoted the former Minister, Phil Hogan, to Europe after he wrecked democracy, banished town councils and forced Irish Water through the House and laughed about it. It took three hours with no proper debate. Look at the monster that has been created. Those on the Fine Gael backbenches were boasting that he was a great man, that he did all the heavy lifting. They said he forced Tipperary together despite my efforts. They said he was some man. He brought in property tax. Now he has gone to Brussels and will benefit from his pension scheme. He brought the gravy train with him. He did all the heavy lifting and now the sky is falling down around those in government and they do not know what is happening. They are mesmerised. As my good colleague, Deputy Healy-Rae would say - I sympathise with him on the death of his late father, Jackie - those in government have been in a coma for three and a half years.

They have woken up suddenly because the people are awake now. They saw what was going on with EirGrid which was trying to destroy our country by putting up pylons for which there was no need, with no analysis or study, just to bail out the Government's friends by giving them the big business.

There is the case of Uisce Éireann. I said at the time that the only thing I liked about it was the name - I like the teanga and the cúpla focal Gaeilge but other than that it is a monstrosity that is hanging around the Government's neck and causing mess after mess. The Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, is a fellow Tipperary man. He put out his chest and he hopes his legacy will be like John F. Kennedy. I say that his legacy will be that he will be up to his oxter in water and something else before he knows it.

The former Minister, Phil Hogan, tried to say that the septic tanks were dirty and the cause of pollution. Now the Government is admitting every day that it is Ringsend and the 42 towns and the municipal districts that are causing that pollution. They try to blame the people when it suits. Anyone who ever drew water from a well knows that it is hard got and those are the people who know the value of water. I am not saying it should be free; I am saying that we do not need the fat cats of Irish Water nor do we need the people who sometimes failed in their senior positions in public service to be rewarded again by getting bigger jobs in Irish Water with no accountability whatsoever. Accountable, my hat, along with transparency, openness and accountability.

The Government reformed the courts and it gave us an extra layer of judges, a new layer, with no definition as to how many cases they would hear. What about justice for the ordinary people? The Government brought out the gardaí in major numbers at Waterford court and other courts recently to stop advocates going in to help and to stand with families who could not afford barristers. It is some fair justice.

I said the Minister for Social Protection was tinkering with the Social Welfare Bill to try to avoid the mess and the damage done by Irish Water. Instead of dealing with people who are on the breadline and dealing with people who have been made homeless, she decided to pay people €100 to register for water and €100 if they have a septic tank and a well. I heard on the news the following morning that the Department of Social Protection was planning to take on more officials to administer this scheme. What, in God's name is going on? The Ministers on the other side of the House would need to pinch themselves and wake up because the people are out there and the Government's epitaph has been written for some time. The people will be ready. They will go into the ballot box in ones, the first chance they get and the Taoiseach's epitaph will be written. He will be banished to oblivion.

I was there in the worst days of the previous Government. We were not as headless and the people were not as frightened and as angry as they are now. They voted for the Government in good faith with the stroke of the pen. They were promised hospitals and they were promised there would not be abortion in this country. They were promised dozens of things but these were all turned to rubbish and put down the drain. I say shame on the Taoiseach and shame on the people who will vote confidence in him. We should be debating many other aspects here this evening.

The Minister, Deputy Bruton, spoke about jobs and so did the Tánaiste and the Minister of State with responsibility for the diaspora. The Government had to appoint a Minister of State for the diaspora because so many people have gone abroad there would need to be Ministers permanently overseas to try to look after them. They are scrambling trying to come home to help their families for Christmas. We should be dealing with joyous matters in the run-up to Christmas and not dealing with this Government motion which was tabled because they believe in their own rhetoric. The Taoiseach got rid of Frank Flannery, the former Minister, Phil Hogan, went to Europe, his famous Minister for Justice and Equality - the great reforming Minister - refused to bring in the scrap and precious metal Bill and many others. Since they have left him the Taoiseach is at sea and he cannot get his hand on the wheel to steady the ship.

Other Ministers and backbenchers might be talking confidence in the Taoiseach today but they are talking otherwise outside here and in the constituencies and they are saying they are voting against this and that. I tell the Taoiseach that his days are numbered and he should stand up and smell the coffee and not be visiting homeless people but rather he should visit the people whom the banks are terrorising. I asked him to visit a family in Tipperary who are being persecuted by NAMA, a State organisation paid for by the taxpayers and they are treating people like that - the Black and Tans did not do it as bad as what the Government is doing. That is fact and the Taoiseach knows it. He has closed down rural Ireland with diktats from Europe, added to the diktats from here and he has closed down rural towns. I was in Castlebar recently, his own town. We saw how his brother got into difficulties in the local elections. Rural Ireland, rural towns, are stifled with bureaucracy and they are stifled with the banks who will not lend a shilling to anyone and are only concerned with getting their bank levels right.

I say to the Taoiseach that he has some neck to table a motion of confidence in himself because he cannot have confidence. I ask him to look in the mirror to see the failure he has been, to see the Omagh bomb victims and see the other people to whom he promised justice and how he has failed them miserably and disgracefully.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy Noel Harrington is sharing time with Deputies Connaughton, O'Mahony, Mulherin and O'Donovan.

Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I suppose it would be too much to have expected something positive in that ten minutes. I ask the House to imagine Deputy Mattie McGrath with a seal of office because it would be something else.

Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I am pleased to rise to support this motion of confidence in the Taoiseach and the Government, which has been provoked by Sinn Féin. In doing so, I have absolutely no confidence in the Sinn Féin leadership. The unstable, obstructive, childish antics engaged by their so-called best and brightest, should be a wake up call to the Irish people of the dysfunction that is the cult of Sinn Féin and that their project of social ordering would inevitably lead to a failed society. Peddling misery and squalor on this country is the vehicle to help them reach their political ambition.

The timing of this motion deserves greater examination. Sinn Féin could not table it any later because things are improving for the Irish people and it was a case of now or never. This Government has achieved what many would not predict. The economic fortunes of Ireland have been rescued and we are firmly on the right path. Great credit must go to the fortitude, resourcefulness, pragmatism and wisdom of the Irish people. However, in order to allow the people to face these challenges, leadership was and is still required to deal with the achievements made and the obstacles yet to come. The Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny and the Tánaiste, Deputy Joan Burton, have provided that leadership.

The stamina ,courage, experience, wisdom and leadership shown by the Taoiseach since March 2011, is in stark contrast with the miserable, petty, incoherent, populist, stage-acting rhetoric that is thrown before us masquerading as though it was a viable or credible alternative. There is no question but this Government has made mistakes and perhaps will again, but the decisions that this Taoiseach and his Ministers have taken has built the foundations for a country where a sustainable economy will provide for a future where people will find reward for their initiative and there will be compassion for the most vulnerable. Of course we are not there yet. This country was left in such a pitiful state by the previous Government it was never going to be fixed in one, two or three years, but we are getting there steadily with the help of the people, guided by this Taoiseach and this Government.

Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I wish to state my full confidence in the Taoiseach and the Labour Party. It is great to see Sinn Féin moving a motion and then leaving the Chamber without listening to the debate. The only one who has received a vote of no confidence is Deputy Adams from Sinn Féin's newest member. She sang the song, "Nothing Compares 2 U" but she obviously does not feel the same about Deputy Adams.

We have come a long way as a Government since 2011. The two parties of Fine Gael and Labour have faced many challenges. It has not always been easy and there has not always been agreement. However, no one can doubt that over the past four years our economic fortunes have changed and we are on the right road. We have not brought everyone with us. It is not always a communications issue but rather at times we have made mistakes and people have punished us for them. However, as a Government we are moving on.

The next election will be in 15 or 16 months, by the way things will work out. There will be a clear alternative - either the road we are taking now or the road that Sinn Féin wants. I do not know what is that road because they are against everything.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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What about the gang of five? I thought Deputy Connaughton was in the gang of five.

Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Sinn Féin voted against every single measure for the past four years. My favourite line is, "the progressive tax system". What does that mean for middle Ireland? They want more money for the health services, more money for education, more money for justice but they do not like the USC and they want lower income tax. How will they pay for it? They will give people the alternative. We will set out where we started and where we are; Sinn Féin has to set out an alternative and there is no plan. The last people who want an election are the Opposition because its members would have to say what they want to achieve and they can achieve nothing. I want all the things they want but we will have to pay for it. I refer to this progressive tax system and I wonder what it will mean for middle-income earners, for middle Ireland and for taxation. Today's motion is a charade. The party who tabled it have left the Chamber. That is how much they valued this debate from the first. It is time to move on and to grow up.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Hear, hear.

John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the opportunity to assert confidence in this Government and in our Taoiseach. The Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and Ministers have outlined how the economy has been repaired, how our credibility has been restored and our economy has moved from being a basket case in Europe to being the fastest growing economy in Europe. Legacy issues have been dealt with and we have learned from mistakes.

As a representative from Mayo I have witnessed first-hand how the Government led by this Taoiseach has delivered infrastructural projects such as roads and in the tourism sector or sports facilities and facilities in the Sacred Heart home.

Unemployment in County Mayo had declined by 18% since 2011, even if emigration accounts for some of this figure. Members of my family who emigrated in recent years have returned and are now working as a result of the growth in the economy.

I will turn briefly to Sinn Féin, the instigator of this and many other stunts in recent weeks. I listened carefully to Deputy Adams proclaim his interest in a real republic that is citizen based. Is he referring to a model where transparency is sought in everything but given in nothing, for example, in the case of the child abuse affair of recent weeks? Is it the model where people want to have everything for free and pay for nothing? Is it the model that has been rolled out in North, where members of my family live, under which every household pays a charge of between £1,500 and £2,000 per annum, which does not even include water charges? If such a charge were applied in the South, water charges would not be necessary.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy's time has concluded.

John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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According to a newspaper report, a copy of which I have in my hand, Sinn Féin Ministers in the North have approved 100 school closures in the past eight years.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputies may not display documents in the Chamber.

John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I note that most Sinn Féin Deputies have left the Chamber. Perhaps they have done so to process the membership applications of their new recruits.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy is over time. He must resume his seat.

Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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As we have seen today, politics is characterised by posturing, manoeuvring, scheming and grand oratory, all of which-----

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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It is all around the Deputy.

Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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-----makes for mesmerising drama for onlookers and political pundits.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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We are comatose.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputies should be quiet.

Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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We know in our hearts that something more down to earth is needed to achieve tangible results, namely, hard work, conviction and application. Fine Gael and the Labour Party were given a massive mandate to put the country back on track. Having been on the brink of disaster only a few short years ago, the country has clawed its way back to economic growth, financial stability, investment, job creation and opportunities for citizens who are of a mind to seize them. Economic recovery required more than political speak and hot air. To be more precise, action was needed and this required difficult, unpopular decisions. Taking such decisions is the last thing any politician thinking about saving his or her skin would be minded to do.

The man who took a stand and on whose watch Ireland has become the fastest growing economy in Europe is the Taoiseach. We have tangible evidence to give us every confidence in the ability of the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Government to rule the country. Let us not be distracted by the rhetoric of the Opposition as it plays games with reality and truth for political gain and popularity.

Sinn Féin has an almighty aversion to people with any wealth. It seeks to crucify farmers with land, carpenters, electricians, subcontractors, people in business and families on middle incomes who pay for everything. The mind boggles when one considers that people on incomes in excess of €33,800 are already treated as high earners under the tax code. How will much needed houses be built if tradesmen are not incentivised to work? Perhaps Sinn Féin expects them to grow from the ground.

While the Government is regularly accused of engaging in a capitalist conspiracy of favouring big business, who is calling the shots for Sinn Féin? A report on the "Today with Sean O'Rourke" show recently laid bare the racketeering of paramilitaries, fuel laundering operations, peddling illegal fuel-----

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy's time has concluded. I ask her to resume her seat.

Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I was interrupted.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Resume your seat.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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I express my confidence in the Taoiseach and Government. I welcome Deputy Colreavy back to the House. He was clearly not fit to be in the chorus given his party's new found interest in music. We must remember that the party which started this debate defines a wealthy person in a country that is recovering as a teacher on a salary of €35,000 or €40,000. What does Sinn Féin have in store for teachers? It would have a standard rate of income tax of 42%, plus incremental annual increases in tax of 7% per annum for three years, giving a 21% increase over three years. To this income tax rate of 62%, we need to add a further 13% to account for PRSI, the universal social charge and everything else Sinn Féin has in store for people. This would bring the standard rate of income tax for a teacher to 75%.

Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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That is a lie.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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In the case of a teacher who is married to a small farmer in west Limerick who owns a few heifers, it also has a wealth tax in store. This tax may generate €40,000 or €50,000 from bad or marginal land in my part of the country over the lifetime of a Sinn Féin Government.

Deputy Colreavy is in an awful hurry to have an election.

Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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Yes.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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I challenge you to tell farmers in Carrick-on-Shannon, Mohill, Sligo and other parts of the west that your party plans to tax their land and the worse the land, the more you will tax it. Your spokesperson on agriculture-----

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy O'Donovan must address his remarks through the Chair. He is inviting disorder.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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Sinn Féin's spokesperson on agriculture told the House that unworked farm assets will be taxed when Sinn Féin gets into government. An unworked farm asset in my part of the world is bad land. Deputy Colreavy, who is from the west, proposes to introduce a tax on land that cannot be farmed and for which payment may need to be made by the litre rather than by the acre. That proposal will certainly go down well.

Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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We certainly would not tell farmers lies.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputies should stay quiet. They may not try to shout down the speaker.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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When Deputy Colreavy travels around the country with Deputy Mattie McGrath, with whom his party hopes to form a Government in the near future, he must not forget to tell people that his party's solution for agriculture is to introduce a land tax on bad land in constituencies such as mine across the west. I do not have any problem supporting the motion of confidence.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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I am extending the time for the debate because of interruptions.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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To understand the reason confidence in this Government has fallen so dramatically since it received one of the biggest mandates in the history of the State, we need only contrast the commitments made prior to March 2011 by both the Fine Gael Party and Labour Party with the actions of those parties in Government in the period since then. The so-called democratic revolution has given way to democratic revulsion as to how the Government conducts its business.

In the three years and nine months since the Government took office, we have witnessed some significant achievements. The economic recovery of recent months is extremely welcome in a country that has endured six financially difficult years.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)
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Well said.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The unprecedented actions taken by the former Minister for Finance, the late Brian Lenihan, cannot be divorced from the current robust recovery. All Deputies will agree that his actions and plan have contributed to the positive news we see today. Brian Lenihan showed great bravery and courage in his role and this should not be forgotten when discussing the level of economic resolution and correction that is taking place.

We were all proud of the successful visit of Queen Elizabeth II, which changed forever the relationship between Ireland and the United Kingdom. It showed Ireland in its best light and symbolised the significant improvement in relations between our country. It also showed how the political leadership of Governments of all political hues had successfully led Ireland, North and South, to peace. These were proud moments for the entire nation.

The Government has also disappointed and sometimes even disgusted citizens, however, through the manner in which it has governed. For a time, good will was shown towards the Government and all parties and citizens realised that the political system had to change. Fine Gael and the Labour Party threw away this good will, however, by engaging in the same old tired politics that had been practised by all parties and none in the past.

The first and most striking reason the Government lost the confidence of the people was the Taoiseach's action on Roscommon General Hospital. On 8 February 2011, in front of hundreds of citizens gathered in Roscommon town, the then leader of the Fine Gael Party called on all voters in the constituency to vote for local Fine Gael candidates to secure and defend the accident and emergency unit in their town. Speaking about the unit, the Taoiseach stated: "We will protect and defend that... We are committed to maintaining the services at Roscommon General Hospital." This commitment could not have been clearer - it was to "protect and defend" the accident and emergency unit when in office. The citizens of Roscommon had no reason to doubt such a simple promise and commitment, especially as it was so clear. Despite this, in a betrayal that indicated the cynical approach to politics that was to become a characteristic of this Government, the then Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, closed the accident and emergency unit of Roscommon General Hospital in July 2011, less than five months after the Taoiseach's original pledge was made. What made matters worse was the Taoiseach's initial denial that he made a commitment to keep the unit open during the election. Only when a recording emerged did he finally accept that he had made such a promise.

The audacity of this approach of spinning until caught red-handed has continued through the life of the Government.

We saw a similar example of this approach during the medical card fiasco. The Government began culling discretionary medical cards to reduce budget overruns in the Health Service Executive, HSE, but it was never announced as official policy. When extreme cases of hardship were raised in the House by Deputy Martin and others outlining the outrageous swiping of medical cards from people most in need, the official Government line was to deny, deny and deny, day in and day out on Leaders’ Question. We were told by the Taoiseach there was no problem and no change in policy. He stated the number of medical cards was not being reduced. Only when public anger grew at this increasingly perverse policy in the run-up to the local and European elections, and particularly after the drubbing it got in the results, did the Government finally acknowledge its inhumane policy and sought to address it. Notwithstanding these changes, medical cards are still not being returned. When my office contacted the HSE about this, it was informed the policies have not yet been implemented even though they were announced more than ten days ago.

We saw the same approach in justice where honourable members of An Garda Síochána sought to highlight serious malpractice in the force, only for them to be told by the responsible Fine Gael Minister that they would be got if they raised concerns about accountability or malpractice. The Government had no place for whistleblowers to go, until eventually an independent report sided with those whistleblowers and commended their bravery in speaking out when political pressure was pushing them to stay quiet and disappear. Yet we are still in the dark as to why the former Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan, resigned and as to the Taoiseach's role in that event. We are still waiting on the commission of investigation to be established to investigate the issues of serious concern arising from the Guerin report.

Even the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has not escaped the Government’s cynical political approach. Fine Gael and Labour showed their utter contempt for the arts and cultural sector by seeking to undermine the arm's length principle with regard to government interference in the arts. It has reduced the arts budget year on year while our national cultural institutions are struggling to function on their ever decreasing budgets. The boards of our national cultural institutions have been used by the Government for purely cynical and political ends. The recent controversy surrounding the appointment of John McNulty to the board of the IMMA, Irish Museum of Modern Art, showed the promised democratic revolution was nothing more than an election gimmick.

Other commitments have led to further disappointment among our people. Our health service waiting lists are soaring while there appears to be no clear policy on how best to reform our health service. The Government sought to abolish the HSE but did not outline with what it would replace it. It has watched over the past four years as a housing crisis on an unprecedented scale developed, leaving hundreds homeless, thousands in fear of being evicted and families giving up on their dream of owning a home of their own. We have seen no action to address the drug problem witnessed across the country, the increasing waiting lists for nursing homes and the appalling abuse of so many families in their inability to get access to the fair deal scheme. There is now a waiting list of up to 15 weeks for the scheme which is putting enormous hardship on families. The scheme is worse than it ever was but the Government claims it is a backlog. It is not. It is about saving money. There are times, if the Government confessed to the people that it finds itself in difficult circumstances, that the people would understand.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Of course, the IMF was not here, was it Deputy?

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The people have taken and given a lot and would work with the Government. It is this continued spinning of half-truths and half-answers that is causing problems for people. We have had it over the past two days. The Minister of State can put his head in his hands and feign some kind of mock indignation about my ability to recognise what the people expected.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)
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You said the IMF was not here.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Through the Chair, please Deputies.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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We have seen the spectacle over the past two days where the fallout from the IBRC, Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, liquidation has led to the potential where junior bondholders ultimately might be paid back. The Government’s spokespeople have hedged, ducked and dived on this rather than coming out stating the facts.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)
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The Deputy should stop. He is on seriously shaky ground here.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The Tánaiste did such a fantastic job at the weekend, stating she would solve the problems and that there was no way on her watch would any of these junior bondholders be paid back. The facts belie what she said. Some of the more honourable Government spokespeople have said the junior bondholders will be paid back if the resources are there. If the one billion of euro that can only be attributed to the taxpayer in that particular formation is paid back, then the bondholders get paid back. The Tánaiste has indicated that this will not happen. That will be an interesting discussion at the EMC, Economic Management Council, which she fought hard to be on. We will see how she will bring forward special legislation to give effect to what she desires. I presume she hopes the returns from the liquidation of IBRC will not be as beneficial as might be. If it overachieves, however, she will have one hell of a problem resolving what she said at the weekend.

Rural Ireland feels abandoned too by the Government as Garda stations are closed, schools are threatened and post offices face an uncertain future.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Fianna Fáil closed more post offices when it was in government.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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While I have already welcomed our improved economic growth, I equally condemn the fact it is a two-tier one. Rural Ireland feels left behind, a fact which the Government continues to fail to address.

We have also witnessed a total failure to reform the political institutions of our State. If anything we have seen the people's trust in our political institutions fall even further under this Government. Stroke politics, cynical politics and politics for the elite is practised by Fine Gael and Labour instead of the new politics they promised us in the 2011 general election.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Some Ministers and backbenchers fail to accept that they promised something different but they have gone back to age old politics of the past. They are still coming in here believing they can hoodwink the people. I do not believe that will work in this instance.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)
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Fianna Fáil’s EMC was its tent at the Galway Races.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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It has all changed.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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This is a motion about leadership. Ireland in the early weeks of 2011 was a country devoid of hope. Some commentators question whether the experiment of an Irish State had failed. The people gave this Government under the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, a mandate to fix the economy and to rebuild the State. That work is now well under way.

As a Government, we have not gotten everything right. Mistakes have been made. Our successes, however, have far outweighed our mistakes. The country is in a better place than it was just three years ago. The achievements of the Government under the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, include rebuilding our economy and exiting the bailout. The number of people in employment is growing monthly and the impact of the Action Plan for Jobs under the leadership of the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, has started to take hold. The minimum wage has been restored with the low-paid taken out of the universal social charge. A process of tax reform for middle-income earners has been started. The Government has allowed the tourism sector to be reborn through initiatives such as The Gathering and the reduction in the VAT rate to 9%. The Government has carried out more reforms of the Oireachtas than any other Government in the past. Steps have been taken to reform our political system at local and national level. The Government has faced up to some of the most tragic episodes of our past, such as abuse in institutions and the Magdalen laundries, in an open and honest way. These are just a few of the achievements under the leadership of our Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, and this Government.

The Opposition wants to vote no confidence in the Government and bring about a general election. It is unfortunate that Deputy Adams who tabled this motion is not in the Chamber now.

Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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It was the Government which tabled this motion.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Has his party confidence in him? Is it forced to have confidence in him out of fear, instead?

The Opposition parties ask us to trust them. I would not trust any of them to run this great country. What does the Opposition offer in the way of leadership? Contrast the leadership provided by our Taoiseach, our Tánaiste and this Government over the past three and a half years with the critics on the other side of the House. The Fianna Fáil Party, led by Deputy Martin, offers nothing positive. He was a Minister who sat at the Cabinet table under Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen, a Minister who was involved in the decisions which destroyed the economy.

Sinn Féin under the leadership of Gerry Adams offers nothing. A man who has failed repeatedly to answer the questions raised by Maíria Cahill and the leader of a party with an economic policy that would devastate this country and reverse all the hard work and gains of the past three years is no real alternative. The collection of Independents offer only criticism and are unable to provide any policies that would offer the people of this country any hope for the future. They are groups that argue with each other just to argue with each other. The Opposition has nothing to offer but hopelessness. It will drag this country back to the economic turmoil that existed before this Government came to power.

This Government and this Taoiseach will fulfil its mandate and serve the people of this country until the spring of 2016. When people go to the polls in 2016, it will be in a country with a thriving economy where things are better than they were when we took over in 2011. As a Government, we will put our record of achievement before the Irish people and ask them to support us. On a daily basis, I work alongside An Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, and see at first hand his leadership skills. I am honoured as a citizen of this country, a member of Fine Gael and a member of this Government to vote confidence in An Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, and in this Government.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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A division has been challenged. As this is a motion of confidence in the Government, in accordance with Standing Order 71(1), the division will proceed through the lobbies.