After all the trauma of the past few months nothing has changed. The Progressive Democrats and Fianna Fáil have both separately decided that the Taoiseach is to continue as Head of the Government; that is their decision. we have a Government remaining in place, not because of leadership but because of the very lack of it. The Taoiseach has simply frustrated the ambition of those who serve him. He remains Taoiseach because those around him have neither the courage nor cohesion to replace him.
I am utterly convinced that the continuance of the Government is not in the best interests of the State. No good will come of the continuance of what we have seen during the past two years. I ask those on the Government benches to drag themselves away from the world of disinformation campaigns, white Hiace vans and threats for a few minutes and contemplate what people outside this House are thinking. The people cannot understand why this Government are still there after all that has happened. They have heard his colleagues make extraordinary accusations against the Taoiseach. They have heard those who supported him last Saturday saying afterwards that he should not be there at the next election, yet this paralysed Government remain in office because of the collective lack of cohesion or cowardice of those around them.
Whatever about the majority in this House, I am convinced that the people can and will do better. The first requirement is that we have a Government who have a clear sense of purpose. Politics in Ireland has become increasingly removed from the people. Few people under the age of 35 listen to or watch political programmes. Politics has become, to use Professor Joe Lee's term, more about possession than performance. Success is measured by how much one possesses, not how well one manages to perform. One cannot perform, of course, unless one has a sense of purpose. The Government do not have a sense of purpose. That is their fundamental problem.
Speaking in this House on 20 February 1985, Deputy Desmond O'Malley said, "Young people can hardly be blamed if they look at this House and its Members with a certain cynicism because they see a certain hypocrisy." Those words were used by Deputy O'Malley on the day he made a moving speech in which he outlined his sense of a true Republic and stated that unlike his colleagues he intended to stand by the Republic. Deputy O'Malley today is not standing by the Republic. He is standing by Deputy Haughey. I will leave it at that.
Where does the interest of this Republic lie? What is best for this Republic? These are questions which are not being answered by this Government, a Government without a policy or a purpose, yet they are questions which must be answered for the people in this debate. Other parties, Opposition and otherwise, should say with clarity where exactly they stand on the issue of a change of Government. Do they want one or not? Do they believe a change of Government is possible? Do they believe that this is the best possible of all Governments that can be formed in this House? I do not think so and I intend to demonstrate how a better Government can and will be formed to replace the present one at the earliest opportunity.
For my part I have no fear for this country as far as the election of a new Dáil is concerned. The people are wise enough and the case for a new Government is strong enough. I wish to give notice in this debate that Fine Gael are seeking a mandate for a new Government from the people. If the people decide that we must enter into discussions with other paries to form such a Government, then we will do so willingly but on the basis of clear and well understood parameters, to which I will refer in some detail. Let me repeat that the people do not and will not have to tolerate this Government indefinitely without any choice being offered. They will have a choice, whether it be his year, next year or the year after. They do not have to continue with this Government for ever. The Progressive Democrats and the 55 Fianna Fáil Deputies have decided between them that in this, the 26th Dáil, we can provide nothing better than the present Government. I am utterly convinced, however, that the 27th Dáil, whenever elected, will elect a new Government which will be immeasurably better than the present one.
How can we build a Government which will be better in every way than the Government who seek renewed authority in this House today? As the leader of the largest united party in Dáil Éireann, I recognise that some responsibility falls on my shoulders. The Taoiseach has no clear objectives on any political issue, nor have his Government. I will state what I intend will be the clear objectives of the Government that will be formed whenever a new Dáil is elected.
The Taoiseach has had half-baked notions on Northern Ireland in the past. When he found himself at a critical point in the nation's history in 1980 and had something almost between his hands, he allowed it to drift away. Then, having virulently opposed the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985, he operated it compliantly from 1987 on. Now he is waiting for the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to make another initiative. He is waiting for the British. Where is the purpose, where is the vision in regard to Northern Ireland of this Government who are seeking a renewed mandate? What is their vision for the future of this country? They have not got one as far as Northern Ireland is concerned or any other matter. In the next Dáil we can and will elect a Government who will make real progress on Northern Ireland, based on an explicit recognition in Articles 2 and 3 of our Consitution of the right of the people of Northern Ireland to decide their own future. There is an unlimited prospect for future prosperity and harmony on this island once that vital recognition is granted. It can open a new era. I am convinced that in the next Dáil a Government will be formed which will be committed to the creation of that new era, based on the mutual respect which has been lacking.
The economic objectives of Deputy Haughey and his Government are equally unclear. In 1980 and 1981 he compounded the financial crisis caused by his own party from 1977. In Opposition from 1981, he was simply destructive. In 1987 he accepted the budget that had been prepared by the previous Government. Some progress was achieved. To borrow Professor Lee's phrase again, because the Government between 1987 and 1989 did not entirely possess, they had to perform. A minority Government had to perform because they could not simply sit back and enjoy power, as the Coalition have done for the past two years. That is the difference between those two Governments.
All the progress up to 1989 was thrown away frivolously in the general election called that year. Few general elections in any country were so blatant about power rather about policy. What economic purpose was served by that election? None. The two parties who lost seats in 1989 proceeded to form a Government. As a result of this contract the Taoiseach and the Progressive Democrats from 1989 had all the power they craved but whereas under a minority Government without full power the nation's finances were brought under control, once we had a majority Government with full power the nation's finances almost immediately started to slip out of control again. In more recent times, the Taoiseach even went so far as to undermine his Minister for Finance. I say this with some feeling because I never saw it happen in any Government in which I was involved. The rift in Fianna Fáil that burst wide open last Saturday can be traced back to the by-passing of the Minister for Finance in the Programme for Economic and Social Progress negotiations. That was followed by the deliberate undermining of the Minister for Finance's radio interviews on the economy. It was all a game. The work of earlier years was wasted. There was no sense of economic purpose or economic leadership.
The recently revised Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats joint programme bears all the marks of this collapse of collective and individual responsibility. The programme's promises on tax and PRSI cannot be met without raising approximately £640 million by some other means. Yet no answer is given anywhere as to how or where this £640 million is to be raised. Without such an answer as to where the money is to come from this vaunted programme is not a policy, it is just an aspiration.
The Programme for Economic and Social Progress, of course, has similar flaws. It contains financial commitments, which I have detailed in a statement in my circulated speech, amounting to £888 million. Again we are not told where a single penny of this is to be found. Like the joint programme between Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats, it is not a policy, it is just an aspiration because they have not said how the money will be found. It is not a policy because a policy is about choices.
There is a well known phrase — I have heard this used by former secretaries of the Department of Finance on many occasions — that to govern is to choose. In neither the joint programme with the Progressive Democrats nor in the Programme for Economic and Social Progress have this Government had the courage to make any choices about where the money was to be found to pay for any of the aspirations they contained. They did not choose; they simply aspired. Because they aspired without choosing they have no right to call either of those documents a policy for the future of this country. The failure to answer these questions about how promises are to be paid for shows the claim of the Progressive Democrats to be a policy driven party, to be nothing more than just pious rhetoric. In the sense of making real choices about how things are to be paid for, the Progressive Democrats are no more policy driven than Fianna Fáil.
However, I am determined that the next Dáil will elect a Government who will have clear economic policies. It is Fine Gael's intention that any Government formed in the next Dáil should agree prior to taking office on certain basic economic parameters. There will have to be a negotiated agreement between the parties forming the Government to limit Exchequer borrowing for each year and an agreement that there will be a balanced current budget over a ten-year period so that we can get the debt-GNP ratio down to 60 per cent, something we must do in order to take part in the proposed single European currency.
I am also determined that there will be an explicit agreement prior to the formation of the Government in the next Dáil that taxation will not be allowed to exceed its present proportion of GNP. Basic budgetary policy must be agreed in advance of the formation of any Government. That did not happen with this Government but it will happen with the Government who will be elected in the next Dáil. Only thus will we have a sound financial framework within which our jobs crisis can be overcome. This Government have shown their lack of any sense of collective purpose in its most extreme form in the way they have reacted to the recent rapid increase in unemployment. They have not outlined any jobs strategy. They do not even have a Minister with overall responsibility for employment matters. They rejected, dismissively, the suggestion of an all-party forum on jobs, put forward by Fine Gael and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. However, having done what they have no policy of their own.
I am determined that the new Government to be elected in the next Dáil will resolutely tackle Ireland's unemployment problem. The people now in office are saying that nothing can be done, there is no hope, and the Government cannot solve the unemployment problem. My party have already started work on a comprehensive jobs Bill designed, in one decisive overall legislative measure, to clear away all the blockages to job creation right across our social system in areas such as taxation, social insurance, labour law, rents policy, means tests and sectoral policies. Our aim is to have one comprehensive legislative measure that can be put into effect in the first three months of the new Administration in the next Dáil. We also want to ensure that all Members of the Dáil, Backbench and Front Bench Members, Opposition and Government, will be allowed play a constructive role in helping to solve Ireland's jobs crisis. We will establish in the next Dáil an all-party jobs forum, to work with the social partners, something which both Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats have refused to countenance.
There is another area in which the utter purposelessness of this Government is evident, that is, their reaction to developments in Europe. The Government have no policy on how Europe should develop. The Taoiseach, going to Europe, is like someone going to a meeting with a notice and a copy of the agenda in his pocket but with no proposals to make. Ireland is no more than a passive bystander in the debates now being conducted by other countries. We are waiting, to use the Taoiseach's words, for something to "emerge". We are not pushing for anything in particular, apart, of course, from looking for more money, as usual.
We have heard ad nauseam from the Taoiseach that he has a list, an agenda — a very passive word — but what objectives does he have? We know what is on the agenda. We know the agenda would be the same no matter what Government were in office. We also know about Maastricht which has been recited so often it has almost become a mantra used by the Government to lull people into a hypnotic trance — if one keeps saying “Maastricht” often enough people will go to sleep. What do the Government intend to do at Maastricht? What do they intend to do about unemployment? The Progressive Democrats have repeated the words “tax reform” so often that they have also become a sort of mantra used to lull people into somnolence. What do the Government intend to do about tax reform? There is no clue given in either the Programme for Economic and Social Progress or the Joint Programme for Government about the answer to that question. They have not said where a single penny to pay for any of the aspirations in those documents will be found.
In the real sense of the phrase, this Government have no common purpose. The key which made the Irish soccer team a success was that Jack Charlton gave them a sense of common purpose. This Government have given the people no sense of common purpose. It is all about staying in office and has nothing to do with achievement. There is no sense of what ought to be achieved.
The Taoiseach did not outline in his speech any mandate for the Ministers being appointed. It is simply a way of rearranging people for some internal party purpose. No purpose or sense of direction has been offered to the people. That, more than the scandals, is what is wrong with this Government at present.
My aim is that the next Dáil, whenever it is elected, will elect a Government who will be committed to a clear and explicit European policy. I hope they will be a Government committed to the creation of a federal Europe. They will also be committed to the genuine radical reform of European institutions to protect small nations in a democratic way through the establishment of an elected European Senate with equal representation for all states similar to that in other federal democracies, such as the United States of America. They will also be explicitly committed to a social Europe and not just to a free trade area. The new Government which I hope will be elected in the next Dáil will give Europe a lead on matters such as aid for the Third World. However, they will also stand for a Europe in which there will be no hiding places for terrorists. I want to see a Government in this State fully committed to effective extradition throughout Europe where political motives will never excuse violent crime of any kind. I do not believe we have such a Government in office today.
I am determined that in the next Dáil we will have a Government who will behave in a collectively responsible way in full accord with the Constitution. We do not have such a Government at present. The Constitution states:
The Government shall meet and act as a collective authority and shall be collectively responsible for the Departments of State administered by members of the Government.
This Government have not honoured those provisions of our Constitution. Even in the past two days their members have spoken of "standing aside" from decisions such as the sacking of Ministers of State. Standing aside is the notion of collective responsibility in this Government. The servants of one Minister, the Taoiseach, actually briefed the press against another Minister in his so-called collectively responsible Government. The Programme for Economic and Social Progress was finalised without the direct involvement of the then Minister for Finance. This was a clear breach of the Ministers and Secretaries Act, 1924, which requires the involvement of the Department of Finance in any matter affecting public finance. The present Taoiseach involves himself directly in the business of individual Departments, meeting State company chairmen, without the involvement of the responsible Ministers. This is not collective Government. There is an old saying: “What is everybody's business is nobody's business”. In this Government the government of Ireland is nobody's business.
It is my intention that the next Dáil will elect a Government that will adhere strictly to the sound principle of collective responsibility. I hope that the next Government will not continue the luxury — which the present Government have — of separate internal rival press offices, financed by the taxpayer on behalf of the two parties forming the Government. My intention is that the next Government will conduct their business in Cabinet, with proper minutes and proper accountability and not in the private home of the Taoiseach or any other Minister.
My intention is that the next Government will respect the independence and integrity of the office of the Minister for Finance. No financial commitments will be entered into that do not have either his or her consent, or the authority of a prior Cabinet decision. That is the only sort of Government in which the people of Ireland will be able to have entire confidence. The next Dáil will end for good the historic aberration of personal Government of a kind we have seen in the early eighties and for the last four years but never before in the history of the State.
The scandalous events that came to the surface in the last two months underline more than anything else the need to return to a genuinely responsible system of collective Cabinet Government. It is simply not acceptable that we have a Government in office today that has refused to take any ministerial responsibility for what happened in Irish Sugar, notwithstanding the very frequent meetings between the Taoiseach and the chairman of the board. Nobody accepts responsibility. They have lots of meetings but they will take no responsibility.
It is not acceptable that we have a Government in which no Minister will take responsibility either for what has happened in Telecom. Everyone else is being investigated except the responsible Ministers. It is not acceptable that no Minister in this Government will take responsibility for the appointment of a chairman of Aer Rianta, notwithstanding the acknowledged leaking — known to the Government — of financial information by that man's company to the commercial rival of a national airline. Nobody takes responsibility for that decision in this Government.
It is not acceptable either that the Head of the Government has refused to take any personal responsibility for giving plainly misleading answers to this House on 22 October last. In all of these matters and in all the other matters I referred to earlier in my speech, we have a Government that, quite literally, wishes to stand aside from responsibility for everything that is happening in this country. Therefore, in the real sense of the term, because they wish to stand aside, we do not actually have a Government.
Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats may well be prepared to accept that for the rest of the 26th Dáil, for the next two and a half years or the next two and a half months or whatever. That situation will not apply in the next Dáil. The next Dáil will not operate on the basis of inner circles or evasive answers. It is my intention that the Government in the next Dáil will establish a comprehensive committee system to which every member of the Government will be answerable. Every Member of this House, through such a committee, will have a voice and a constructive voice. If, for example, the privatisation of a State company is being contemplated, each step along the road will be explained by Ministers to a committee of this House. Decisions by Ministers to appoint consultants will be taken on the basis of open tender and not of private discussion.
Ministers will, I propose, be compellable to give evidence before the Joint Committee on Commercial State-sponsored Bodies. We will never again have, as we have had in the last few weeks, the spectacle of a Minister refusing to appear before that or any other committee of this House. Why is that? If Ministers themselves are properly supervised by this House they, in turn, will properly supervise the companies and agencies under their control. That is the key to preventing future scandals, proper supervision. That is what Dáil Éireann is for. Dáil Éireann is there to ensure that the Government do their job. Because this Dáil, through no fault of its own, has not been doing its job, Ministers in turn have not been doing theirs and we have allowed a situation of the kind that came to the surface in the last two months to arise.
This country has the capacity to perform and to win. I know that. Those who are content simply to possess office for the next two and a half years should first move aside. They must allow this nation to run its own affairs, to build an Ireland, as part of a Europe of which we can all be proud. We need a Government that will govern with a purpose and that will thereby release the creative energies of our people in the way they have been released in so many other spheres of endeavour but have not been released in the area of politics or economics because, quite simply, the people who are supposed to provide the leadership in that area — the Government — are not doing so. We can do better and we will do better. In the next Dáil we will have a better Government than the present one, and I am determined that that will happen.
