I move:
That, pursuant to section 39 of the Electoral Act 1992 and owing to the vacancy in the office of the Clerk of the Dáil, the Ceann Comhairle direct the Clerk-Assistant of the Dáil to issue his Writ for the election of a Member to fill the vacancy which has occurred in the membership of the present Dáil consequent on the resignation of Deputy Patrick Nulty, a Member for the constituency of Dublin West.
There are two motions. I will propose one and the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, will propose the other. I move the motion in regard to the Dublin West by-election. I am very conscious of the circumstances in which these two by-elections have arisen. In the case of Longford-Westmeath, it was the sad death of our colleague, Deputy Nicky McFadden, who gave very fine service to the people of her constituency. I again express my sympathy to her family. I would also like to take the opportunity to extend my sympathy to former Deputy Patrick Nulty on the recent death of his father. It serves to remind all of us that politics is a very human business and we should never lose sight of the human dimension of the work we do, notwithstanding the fact that very often we have to engage in sometimes very rancorous debate.
This Government reformed the Electoral Act 2011 by providing that a by-election must take place within six months of a vacancy arising. In the circumstances, it is appropriate that these by-elections should take place on the same date as the European Parliament and the local elections on 23 May and that we provide the earliest possible opportunity for the people of both constituencies to have their full representation in the Dáil. I am also very conscious of the fact that the debate in the local elections will essentially be about the people who will represent communities on their local councils, doing the important work of making decisions in regard to planning, the delivery of local services and the development of local communities. That is a very important decision which people will have to make.
Similarly, the decision in regard to the European Parliament elections will be about the representatives this country will have in the European Parliament for the next five years and the future direction of Europe. Indeed, on this occasion, because of the changes in the Lisbon treaty, the European Parliament will have a role in the election of the President of the European Commission, for which all of the major European political groupings have nominated candidates.
Inevitably in the course of the by-elections, debate will centre on the performance of Government and where the country is. As far as the Labour Party is concerned, we intend to approach these elections in a very vigorous way by pointing out that no matter which way one looks at it, this country is in a better place today than it was three years ago when we took on the responsibility of Government. Three years ago, this country was bankrupt, the banks were broke, nobody would lend money to the country, our reputation was in tatters, unemployment was heading towards 0.5 million, many people were worried about whether the State could continue to afford to pay pensions and deliver services and, in many cases, those who had savings were taking them across the Border to put them in banks in Northern Ireland because they were afraid of what would happen to them.
Three years later, we are out of the bailout and jobs are being created. There are 70,000 more people at work today than when this Government took office three years ago.
There are 2,700 more classrooms today than there were three years ago when the Government took office. We are beginning to see the economy and our fortunes recover again. It is not all done because the scale, depth and nature of the crisis we inherited three years ago were so bad that it takes time to work our way through it, but at least today we are in a position where people can, for the first time since the start of the recession, see that there is an end, a prospect of improvement and a future in this country for their children. There is a future here too for the many who had to emigrate during the recession and will now see a prospect of returning again.
Essentially, the choice people have to face is whether they should hand the keys of the car back to the party that crashed it in the first place or whether they should hand the keys of the car to parties and political forces that do not know how to drive in the first place.