Dáil Éireann debate -
Friday, 14 Dec 1984

Vol. 354 No. 13

Adjournment of Dáil: Motion (Resumed).

Debate resumed on the following motion:

That the Dáil at its rising on 14 December 1984 do adjourn for the Christmas recess until 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 22 January 1985.

—(The Tánaiste.)

The Taoiseach

It is right that after two years in Government we should address ourselves in this House to the progress that has been made during this period in tackling the critical problems that we inherited when we came into office and moreover that we should measure the distance we still have to go in the remaining three years of our term of office under the various headings. That is what I propose to do.

Any such assessment has to start with the situation in which we found ourselves when we took over the reins of office. First we inherited from our predecessors near insolvency in the public finances, economic stagnation and declining living standards, unemployment mounting at a rate of 40,000 a year and a 20 per cent inflation rate.

Secondly, our financial credibility abroad was under the most serious threat since the foundation of the State. Our reputation among our Community partners and other friendly states was at its lowest ebb because of the mismanagement of our economy and the scandals surrounding the performance of our predecessors in Government during the brief interregnum in 1982.

Thirdly, we inherited an Anglo-Irish relationship so damaged that Irish people living in Britain were under severe social pressure and the sales of identifiable Irish products in that market were seriously threatened.

That the man personally responsible for having brought us to that situation two years ago should have had what I can only describe as the brass neck to come in here this morning and make the kind of speech he did will have surprised no one, nor will it have impressed anyone. That he should, when asked if he intended to circulate copies of his speech, have denied its existence and have claimed to be speaking from notes, thus denying the House the courtesy of a copy of his speech, when he had already circulated the full text to the Press Gallery, from which he read word for word, will not surprise anybody either. A copy was on my desk, courtesy of the Fianna Fáil press office, when I returned immediately after his speech. I am returning the compliment. I do have a text but I am not circulating it here in the light of the performance of the Leader of the Opposition this morning.

Let me take in turn the problems we inherited and the actions this Government have taken to deal with them. As far as Government finances are concerned this House knows and the country knows just how close to national insolvency we had been brought by the policies pursued by the free-spending, freewheeling Fianna Fáil Government of 1977-81. Especially during their last 18 months in power under the leadership of Deputy Haughey, they had sought to accommodate the utmost demands of every interest group, regardless of cost, in the vain hope of buying sufficient public support to stay in office when they eventually had to face the people.

Mr. Flynn

On a point of order, is it proper that the Taoiseach should not be prepared to circulate a copy of his address when he is reading it?

An Ceann Comhairle

That is not a matter for the Chair. The Chair has no function in that regard.

Mr. Flynn

Would you regard it as a precedent? It is the first time during your term in the Chair that the Taoiseach making an address to this House did not circulate his prepared text.

An Ceann Comhairle

I have said that I have no function as to whether a speech is circulated or not. This is a confined debate.

Mr. Flynn

I regard it as a matter of considerable discourtesy that the Taoiseach is not prepared to make a copy of his speech available to the Opposition.

An Ceann Comhairle

The Taoiseach, without interruption.

The Taoiseach

I am taking that step to demonstrate that this morning a false statement was made by the Leader of the Opposition when he said he was speaking from notes and had not got the text when he read from a text which had already been distributed to the press.

Mr. Flynn

My recollection of what happened this morning was that Deputy Haughey was reading from notes for a certain length of time before he went into his proper text. The Taoiseach is showning great disrespect to Members of this House.

An Ceann Comhairle

I must ask Deputy Flynn to resume his seat. The Taoiseach without interruption.

The Taoiseach

When we took over on 30 June 1981 we faced the greatest financial crisis this country had ever faced or, please God, will ever have to face. On the basis of the policies then being pursued, current overspending in 1982 was shaping up at 13 per cent of our national output and the public sector borrowing requirement for the same year would, if we had not taken instant control of our financial affairs, have far exceeded 25 per cent of GNP.

Those figures spelt national insolvency. Had we not acted with utmost speed and determination, within weeks rather than months, we would have been delivered into the hands of the IMF, and would have lost any control over the running of our own affairs. This country was saved from that fate most narrowly, by a matter of weeks, if not days, by the defeat of the Government under Deputy Haughey.

Since then, despite the scandal-ridden interregnum of 1982 when some of the financial ground we had gained was lost, overspending on the Government current account has been effectively halved as a proportion of GNP. By 1987 we will have cut it back to 5 per cent of national output and total public sector borrowing, already well down from the horrendous peak under Fianna Fáil, will by 1987 be a fraction of the figure which they were in the process of committing us to in 1981.

Moreover, uniquely, we have done this while turning around the economy. The drastic fall in living standards imposed upon our people by Fianna Fáil's policies has been halted, and our people in the years ahead can look forward to some recovery, even if modest, in their purchasing power. The collapse of employment to which Fianna Fáil policies had contributed, has been halted, and is in the process of being reversed. We can now look forward to a rising level of employment in the three years ahead — a process which, indeed, the Economic and Social Research Institute in their most recent quarterly report believe may already have begun in the non-agricultural sector in the first eight months of this year.

Inflation, which under Fainna Fáil had leapt to a figure in excess of 20 per cent, has been reduced to less than 8 per cent in the last 12 months. We are entering 1985 with the prospect of a 6 per cent inflation rate — lower than anything we have experienced for over a decade.

At another level we have got our actual public spending in relation to the budget under control for the second successive year. After a number of years in which the current budget deficit and public borrowing exceeded by enormous margins the already excessive amounts budgeted for by Fianna Fáil Governments, we are now in a position to report that the current deficit and borrowing in the current year are likely to be somewhat below the figure budgeted for last January. This follows our experience in 1983 when we kept current public spending within one quarter of 1 per cent of the level projected at budget time.

These achievements reflect tight control over public spending and accurate forecasting of public revenue. This is something with which Fianna Fáil never bothered itself when in office and which they could no doubt be counted upon to abandon once again were they ever allowed to get back into power in this country.

There is, I have to say, one figure in the budgetary arithmetic for the present year which we have fallen short of by a significant margin. It is the level of unemployment allowed for in our budget on the basis of the advice officially tendered to us. We had felt obliged to accept this advice in order to restore confidence in our public finances — confidence which had been so distorted by the fiddling of figures by the previous Government.

When the budget was introduced I told this House that I believed that the provision for unemployment was too high, but I was not prepared to allow my personal belief to distort in any way the provisions made for expenditure. I was determined that there would be no repetition of the experience we had when Fianna Fáil in 1982 knocked £115 million off the 1983 Estimates without taking a single policy decision to give practical effect to this stroke of a pen —"stroke" is the operative word. My belief in respect of the level of unemployment in the current year has been fully vindicated. The average level of unemployment for the year now looks like being about 13,000 lower than the figure provided for in our budget. I make no apology to the House for this divergence between our projections and our performance, the only significant divergence in the present year.

Our achievements have not been limited to getting the public finances into order and preparing a sound basis for the three years ahead. The actions we have taken also have contributed to making the economy competitive once again. On behalf of the Government I claim only some small part of the credit for this. The main credit must go to our people, to the workers who have with realism moderated their demands for income increases, to the businessmen, native and foreign, whose dynamism has created the conditions for growth in our economy, and to the farmers whose hard work, despite the discouragement of a very sharp fall in real incomes at the end of the seventies, has produced an increase in real output and, be is said, in real incomes for them in each of the three years since the Coalition were first elected in 1981. Already we are beginning to reap the benefits of the new mood of realism which the efforts of our Government have helped to bring about in the years since we came into office. In these two years public attitudes have been transformed. A sense of reality now prevails. We have come out of the dream world of green papers on full employment. Do the Deputies opposite remember that promise of full employment in five years from 1978?

Mr. Haughey

About 16,200 more are unemployed now.

(Interruptions.)

The Taoiseach

Starting with a 40,000 a year increase in their term of office, we came out of that dream world of forecasts of 7 per cent annual growth in national output. We came out of the dream world of endless bonanzas and good things to be achieved without cost. That dream world of the late seventies and early eighties turned suddenly into a nightmare for the people. This sense of reality which now pervades our country involves a new conviction that the old way of doing things is not good enough, a lesson Fianna Fáil have not learned. It is a conviction that nobody owes us a living, that free rides for ourselves are no longer available——

Mr. Haughey

Except from India.

The Taoiseach

——and no amount of rhetoric from that side of the House can convince anybody that they are. People in other lands who buy goods and services we produce, and indeed our people buying these goods and services at home, are concerned to get value for money. Those who are producing those goods and services by giving this value for money have boosted our industrial output this year by 12 per cent and our industrial exports by 20 per cent, a unique performance by European standards.

Nevertheless, too much of this performance is still dependent upon a couple of key high technology sectors that are dominated by foreign firms. Many of our domestic producers have a long way to go before getting into the same league in terms of increases in output, export and profits. If they are to match the performance of the new, imported, high technology industries, then they will need the fullest co-operation from all concerned in terms of an even greater measure of pay moderation than already achieved, reduction of absenteeism to the level of other countries with which we compete, and the achievement of reliability in deliveries and dynamism in marketing beyond that already prevailing.

We need even more. They need to be able to secure essential public services at competitive prices.

Mr. Flynn

It is too soon for the pantomime.

An Ceann Comhairle

I ask Deputies to please restrain themselves and preserve order.

Mr. Flynn

It will not be Rodgers and Hammerstein this time.

An Ceann Comhairle

Deputy Flynn.

(Interruptions.)

The Taoiseach

We need even more than this. Our firms need to be able to secure essential public services at competitive prices. Both our private and public sectors providing competitive goods and services require electricity at a price that can match that paid by their competitors in other countries. They need highly competitive transport costs which in turn demand a massive improvement in our road network so badly neglected under the previous administration that it remains by far our single most serious infrastructural deficiency.

The State has an important role to play in these key areas, and we are determined that the State will play that role. We are not prepared to follow the path sketched out by the Leader of the Opposition this morning of bailing out enterprises which have gone beyond the point where they can be made economic, or of bolstering up inefficiency in any part of the public sector that is providing infrastructural services required by producers, whether public or private, of goods and services for sale at competitive prices abroad and at home.

The money — the taxpayers' money — which we have available to invest through the various State financial agencies is now being put into new areas that can earn a return and can provide enduring employment for years to come. We are not going to divert these resources away from employment creating activities into futile attempts to keep alive enterprises which cannot be sustained on an economic basis.

Let us be clear about it; it was the pursuit of that kind of flabby policies by our predecessors in office which got this country into the crisis that has led to unemployment rising to a level in excess of 200,000. By taking, on every occasion, the soft option of throwing good money after bad they created a climate in which firms were encouraged to believe — and came to believe — that they had not to worry about inefficiency. That Fianna Fáil Government ended up by adding substantially through these policies to long-term unemployment.

I do not propose to let anyone forget that in one year alone, 1980, the first year in office of Deputy Haughey as Taoiseach, the public service pay bill was increased by 35 per cent for a single year. The extra taxes required to pay for that kind of increases and the following year's 24 per cent increase in the public service pay bill forced the level of taxation up to where taxes are having a gravely disincentive effect and have undermined the will of many entrepreneurs and the capacity of many industries to survive. The reason for the level of taxation is not this Government's increased spending. We have held spending. It is because the previous Government by that kind of policy have made taxation necessary on a scale which has undermined the benefit to our whole economy and taken the heart out of our people with regard to any kind of enterprise.

Nor has there been any sign of change in the attitude of Fianna Fáil under Deputy Haughey on these issues. He has made it clear that he and his party still believe that the way the country should be run is to give in to the demands made by any and every interest group. The Fianna Fáil Party under his leadership think still that government is a simple matter of agreeing to every demand made upon the State and letting the taxpayer take the consequences. Indeed, one might say that the message of this debate, the message that many people wish to take from Fianna Fáil's pathetic contribution to it is "taxpayers beware of Fianna Fáil". The Fianna Fáil elephant has learned nothing and forgotten nothing. In their need to get back into power they will promise and promise the taxpayers' money to every interest group they can find. They will destroy the prospect of increased employment by imposing a further elephantine burden of costs on taxpayers. They are already paying far beyond the odds to finance the consequences of the policies they pursued between 1977 and 1981.

I have been speaking about the domestic economic situation — about the achievements of this Government in turning around our economy and giving hope for the future. We have recently brought this process to a head by setting out in the three year plan precisely how the Government intend to govern during the years ahead thus providing our people, businessmen, farmers and workers, with a clear basis on which to plan their affairs.

The pursuit of these policies has had its effect also — a most overdue and beneficial effect — on the credibility of our State abroad.

This is true both in terms of our financial credibility and of the general respect in which our State and its Government are held and which in the past has always been a source of pride to the Irish people.

Mr. Lenihan

Our credibility was never lower.

The Taoiseach

We are now well on the way to retrieving the damage done to our financial credibility by the manner in which our affairs were mishandled in the period up to 1981. Because of the need to turn around our economy and move it back on to a growth path, we have had to move more slowly towards a reduction of borrowing than we had intended. But the rationale of this policy is understood in financial circles and the proposals in our national plan on this aspect of our policy have been accepted.

We are now being offered loans by foreign banks at the very finest rates and have even been able to repay older debt which had been borrowed on less favourable terms. The international financial press has been referring to "the Republic's stunning economic comeback".

And it is clear the improvement in our good standing hinges on the perception that this Government have shown commitment to getting public finances right. A recent quotation from an American banker went: "The country's image among lenders is better now than it has been for several years. Clearly Ireland has started very distinctly on the process of housekeeping."

A few months ago we were able to renegotiate on a single loan package an interest rate reduction worth $1 million a year, and our latest borrowings have been at even lower rates.

There is a broader kind of credibility with which we must also be concerned. The reputation of our State in 1982 to the world outside Ireland was low for reasons that went beyond mere issues of public finance. The type of Government we then had, and the scandals associated with it, lowered Ireland in the esteem of our partners in Europe and other friendly countries. This Government have restored the esteem in which Ireland is held outside these shores. The quality of our ministerial representation in the Community and in international negotiations generally, including negotiations with major firms relating to the development of new industries in this country, is universally recognised. Our people can now hold their heads high once again in terms of the respect in which both our country and its Government are held.

Our Presidency of the European Community provided an opportunity to complete this process of restoring our national credit. The solid achievements of our Presidency are recognised everywhere in Europe. Twelve significant tasks were entrusted to us during this Presidency:

(1) to clear the way for negotiations for the enlargement of the Community; (2) to remove the obstacles that stood in the way of the adoption of a Supplementary Budget for 1984; (3) to conclude the negotiations with the African/Caribbean Indian Ocean and Pacific countries; (4) to initiate the work of two committees established at Fontainebleau with the purpose of tracing the path ahead towards European union and to identify areas in which Europe should make progress of a kind that would be meaningful to its citizens; (5) to secure the appointment of a new President of the Commission (6) to secure agreement on a single document for the clearance of goods at frontiers; (7) to make a breakthrough on a wide package of measures in the transport area where no progress has been made for years; (8) to achieve agreement on the Community policy to eliminate lead in petrol (9) to reorientate the Social Affairs Council towards tackling the problem of long term unemployment (10) in relation to the wider international scene, to get Community agreement to the signature on behalf of the Community of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea; (11) to organise the first ever meeting with the Central American countries, in Costa Rica; and, finally, in a more recent period to secure a commitment by the Community to provide adequate food aid to Ethiopia and the Sahel countries. Under all 12 of these headings our Ministers have delivered during our Presidency — just as, when in Government in 1975, we established for the first time Ireland's constructive European role through the manner in which we handled that first Irish Presidency of the Community.

Mr. Hyland

It is a pity the Government cannot be as successful in Ireland.

The Taoiseach

I turn now to Anglo-Irish relations and the problems of Northern Ireland — the interruptions indicate how much interest Fianna Fáil have in this regard but we have always known the extent of that interest anyway. This remains for me and the Government and for the rest of us on this side of the House the most important issue which faces the Irish people.

An aspect of the reaction to Mrs. Thacher's Press conference that concerned me greatly was the tendency to seize exclusively on the unfortunate tone and content of her replies to two specific questions, and the corresponding tendency in Ireland — though not in Britain — to ignore the positive content both of the communique and of her other replies to questions at the press conference.

I can perfectly well understand why our own public opinion should have been seriously concerned at some of the elements in the Prime Minister's remards. But, that said, if we care about Northern Ireland — and some of us care passionately about the tragic situation in which its people, Nationalist and Unionist have to live — we should all look seriously at the constructive and positive elements that emerged from the Chequers meeting and, if we can do so, we have an absolute duty to build on those.

Before Chequers I repeatedly made it clear that I did not know how far the British would be prepared to go with us in the approach laid down by the Nationalist parties in the Forum report. I said that we shared a good deal by way of common analysis. This was confirmed at Chequers and in particular in the communique Mrs. Thatcher and I issued afterwords. We also found, as I reported, that there were considerable areas of difficulty in terms of real changes that might be contemplated in the future.

We are seeking to overcome these difficulties in the talks which are now continuing. We may or we may not succeed. I cannot and have not ever prejudged the outcome. I can only say that, if I did not believe that there exists a real possibility of achieving progress towards peace and stability in Northern Ireland in these discussions, I would not waste my time nor that of my Government in pursuing this matter further; nor would I delude our people in to believing that such a possibility existed, if there were not reasonable grounds for so believing.

But we have reached the point where, in the words of the British Prime Minister, repeated at both press conferences, the two Governments are seeking a new political framework that would be acceptable to both communities in Northern Ireland and not just the Unionists, a framework that will create the kind of situation that is likely to endure, which will help to defeat terrorism and to establish a greater sense of security for all parts of the Northern Ireland community. That is the declared position of the British Government. Would any Irish Government be able to justify to themselves, to their conscience, to the Irish people or to the people of Northern Ireland failure to follow up an opening of that kind, wherever it might be? We cannot know at this stage whether it would lead to a successful outcome but we will not fail to pursue to the furthest limits the possibility that exists.

A couple of years ago we witnessed a disastrous process when an Irish leader, for his own short-term political advantage, in anticipation of an early election, exaggerated beyond any reality a so-called "historic breakthrough" with Mrs. Thatcher. The boasts of that occasion created some ephemeral approval on the part of his own party. But, tragically, the very process of exaggeration immediately destroyed any prospect of developing a real dialogue with the British about doing something for the people of Northern Ireland — a prospect which, in fairness to the Leader of the Opposition, he had in fact helped to create and which ought at all costs to have been preserved and built on. As a result of the attempt to exploit that progress for short-term electoral gain in this State, the misery of the people of Northern Ireland has continued, and even deepened.

Mr. Haughey

That is a lie.

An Ceann Comhairle

Deputy Haughey will please withdraw that remark. Is the Deputy withdrawing the remark?

Mr. Haughey

No.

An Ceann Comhairle

A parliamentary deliberative assembly cannot continue to work ——

Mr. R. Burke

The Taoiseach has made an outrageous statement.

An Ceann Comhairle

——if Members are allowed to call others liars across the floor of the House. I am asking Deputy Haughey to withdraw the remark.

Mr. Flynn

The Taoiseach should withdraw the charge he has made.

Mr. Haughey

I am asking the Taoiseach to withdraw the statement that I am responsible for a deterioration of the situation in Northern Ireland.

The Taoiseach

I will not withdraw it. It is a political charge.

An Ceann Comhairle

It is a political charge.

Mr. Lenihan

It is shameful and petty.

Mr. Flynn

The lie is the Taoiseach's.

An Ceann Comhairle

Is Deputy Haughey withdrawing the word "lie"?

Mr. Haughey

No.

An Ceann Comhairle

I am ordering the Deputy to withdraw the word "lie". If he persists in refusing I must ask him to leave the House.

Mr. Haughey

I will leave the House.

(Interruptions.)

Deputy Haughey withdrew from the Chamber.

An Ceann Comhairle

Order, the Taoiseach to continue.

The Taoiseach

I have to say that I have been greatly encouraged by the courageous and positive attitude of the SDLP at the heights of the confusion in the days following Mrs. Thatcher's and Mr. Hurd's press conference. That party know that we have, as they themselves suggested, set out fully, clearly and unambiguously to the British authorities the problems which were created by some of the unfortunate statements made after Chequers.

At the same time I should also acknowledge that I found recent remarks and speeches of the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to be positive and constructive.

No amount of jibes, or pressure, or vituperation will induce me to follow that disastrous example of 1980-81, destroying the new opportunity now created to discuss with the British Prime Minister real possibilities for, in her words, improving the lot of the two sections of the community in Northern Ireland, and bringing peace and stability to Northern Ireland and thus to the island as a whole.

On this great issue our obligation is to the people of Northern Ireland, not to our own political interests. I have not the slightest doubt that the Irish people as a whole share that conviction and they share my contempt for those who wish to use this issue to revive a spurious sense of national inferiority vis-á-vis Britain and the British Government.

The Irish Government will continue to seek a real change for the better for the people of Northern Ireland as long as the prospect of such a change remains in our view a real possibility. If the Opposition have any sense of patriotism, any real concern for the people of the North, they will back us in this task. The people will judge them on their performance on this issue. Let no Deputy opposite — but where are they?——

(Interruptions.)

An Ceann Comhairle

Order, please.

The Taoiseach

——be in any doubt about that. I have set out what this Government have achieved in restoring our national solvency, turning round our economy and reviving confidence abroad in this country and its Government in facing the Northern Ireland issue.

In his remarks this morning Deputy Haughey raised a number of points most of which I will not bother with because they are not worth bothering with. Deputy Haughey accused us of giving increases in social welfare rates that were derisory and insulting and said they failed to maintain the living standards of our people. In fact the increase in social welfare in the last two budgets increased the amounts payable so that their value in real purchasing power in the two years was raised by amounts ranging from 2½ per cent for short term beneficiaries to 9 per cent for the longterm unemployed. As the Tánaiste said yesterday, that represents a unique performance in Europe at present where the real levels of social welfare benefits are being held or, in many cases, cut under various Governments.

The second point I wish to make about Deputy Haughey relates to his extraordinary accusation that in some way our relationship with the German Government has been damaged. There is no basis for this. The German Government are very appreciative of the way in which during the Presidency we handled the issue of wine, in which they had important interests. They also greatly appreciated the way in which the Irish Presidency has transformed the status of negotiations on enlargement, to which they attach great importance, and which culminated in the success of the Dublin meeting. Twice during the Presidency I had warm and very friendly meetings with Chancellor Kohl.

Deputy Haughey also referred to what he called our failure to accept an offer of a 10 per cent increase in milk output in Athens. The Deputy did not recall to the House that this 10 per cent was to be spread over four years, a digressive 4 per cent, 3 per cent, 2 per cent, 1 per cent. If Deputy Haughey thinks this is the best deal available, it is just as well for Irish farmers that he was not responsible for negotiations.

Deputy Haughey also alleged that we had in some way damaged our relationship with Greece because of the way we handled the matter of the integrated Mediterranean programme in our Presidency and during the European Council meeting in Dublin. I would put Deputy Haughey right by saying that the Prime Minister of Greece has written to me to say that he wishes to extend to me his warmest thanks for both the admirable way in which we conducted a difficult session in Dublin and for the understanding we had shown to the Greek position on the integrated Mediterranean programmes as expressed in my speech in Strasbourg and in the letter I was kind enough to send him on 10 December 1984. He also wished to thank me for our intention to continue in the remaining weeks of the Irish Presidency the work of giving a positive lead and direction towards a satisfactory solution to this matter. It is some indication of the level of inventiveness which Deputy Haughey can display that he can make accusations out of the air which are totally at variance with the facts.

This Government have to confront an Opposition which is unlike any other since the foundation of the State. Normally a Government and Opposition while maintaining a healthy rivalry share the responsibility of serving the true interests of the people they represent. Not so with this Opposition. First they disregard the basic facts of the economic financial situation that exists, for which they are responsible. They seek to trade on the fears of the people and to delude the gullible by denying the need for measures to restore our national solvency. Secondly they pretend to the people that there is some kind of heartless group in Government who for some unexplained reason are inventing horrific stories about our financial crisis in order to grind the faces of the poor. They work on the basis that the Irish people, whose intelligence they insult, are so uninformed that they will not know the damage done abroad by the disastrous mismanagement of our affiars while they were in office. For the first time in my recollection an Opposition has attacked a Taoiseach in office while he was abroad representing not just this State but the Nationalist people of the whole island. In doing so the Leader of the Opposition was playing the Unionist game to their obvious delight, and they made the most of it. There is no future for any of us in this island in pursuing matters in this way, tearing ourselves apart with arguments about solutions which everybody knows to be simplistic and impractical.

There is an attempt to present Fianna Fáil as a new reformed party now ready for Government. This is an attempt by the funders of Fianna Fáil — funders being a good word, which indicates the type of scyophantic elements involved — to whitewash that party in the hope of hiding their real nature. The whitewash is drying as fast as it is being applied and it is flaking away exposing the old dilapidated structure underneath. When it falls away we see a party who welcome Deputy Seán Doherty and exile Deputy O'Malley. We see a party who reject and at times seem even to revile the achievements of Deputy Jack Lynch. We see a party in which independent thinking leads to victimisation and exile. Yet they claim to be true representatives of the Irish people. They cannot even represent the Fianna Fáil voters in Limerick — a city which has not been visited by their Leader for some time past. They are a party who can find no place in their ranks for people like Mary Harney because she dares to hold independent views. Surely they cannot inspire the Irish nation, especially the younger generation. A party whose internal politics is poisoned by dissent, jealousy and hatred can only debase rather than inspire the quality of political life.

In a recent interview Deputy Haughey said — I cannot for obvious reasons quote it directly in the House but I will quote it in a modified form —"I could instance a load of [expletives deleted] whose throats I'd cut and push over the nearest cliff but there's no percentage in that". If any Opposition Deputies were present I would have asked which of them thought their throats would be cut and were they not glad that their Leader does not feel that there is any percentage in it at the present time. What would happen if he thought there was a percentage in it? When the paint peels off we see a party prepared to promise the moon to anyone who seems to have muscle. We see that the nature of the Opposition has not changed. Their promises were detailed here yesterday by the Tánaiste. He calculated that they would cost £570 million for the last month alone but that did not include Deputy Haughey's promise this morning of a massive injection of additional infrastructural capital. Deputy Haughey did not put a figure on it but I do not suppose that anything less than £250 million would be regarded as a massive injection of investment. That would raise the figure which the Tánaiste mentioned yesterday to about £3/4 billion. Neither Deputy Haughey nor anyone else in Fianna Fáil has told us where this is to come from. It is time we and the Irish people were told. So long as those unsubstantiated promises are made by Fianna Fáil the people will remain unwilling and unable to return the party opposite to power.

An Ceann Comhairle

The Taoiseach has six minutes left.

The Taoiseach

I will not need that. As the paint peels off we see a new form of tea pot diplomacy, this time practised in the desert. I only hope the sequel to this is not as damaging to national interests as the sequel to the last attempt in London. Everything that is visible under the peeling whitewash goes to prove that were the country to return Fianna Fáil to office again, which is not likely, all hope of national regeneration and stability and peace in Northern Ireland, all hope of a decent way of life for the next generation will vanish. That will not happen because they will not be returned to power. The manner in which they have absented themselves from this debate is a foretaste of the manner in which they will absent themselves from the Government benches for the rest of this decade.