In moving the rejection of these nominations I do so because they have been made by a Taoiseach in whom 101 of the 165 Deputies on different occasions inside or outside the Dáil have expressed for the public record their lack of confidence. No Taoiseach in the history of the State has ever lost the confidence, and been seen by the public to have lost the confidence, of all but three-fifths of Dáil Éireann.
Such a Government lacks the moral authority needed at any time in order to govern. Such moral authority is vital at a time like this. This loss of confidence in the Dáil and elsewhere has been progressive, as has a similar collapse of confidence by the people. One of five people who expressed willingness to support the Government party last May have expressed themselves no longer willing to vote for them. Why has this happened, this slide in support for the Government and the willingness of people to contemplate voting for the Government in an election?
It has happened because the people know there is a crisis and can see no hope of it being tackled effectively by this Government. They are disillusioned with this Government who told them last March that there was no serious economic crisis, that soft options were open, that £170 million of expenditure cuts and revenue increases proposed by the preceding Government could be done away with and replaced by taking money from next year as a temporary expedient. The people are disillusioned with a Government who allowed, on their own figures, a further £340 million slippage between March and July. They are disillusioned with a Government who then reversed engines, attempting a second U-turn on this issue in two-and-a-half years.
The people are disillusioned because the result of this £500 million splurge in a desperate search for electoral popularity has meant drastic unplanned cuts. It can be seen in the attempt to welch on the third phase of the public pay agreement, which failed, as it was bound to do, and reduced the Government's capacity to renegotiate as distinct from re-phasing payments of special pay increases. We have seen this again in cuts in the health services, including discriminatory withdrawal of hundreds of drugs from the least well off, those on medical cards, while the full cost of the same drugs, subject to small monthly deductions, is available to all of us who are better off. It is typical that here, as in the changes in the tax code, the abolition of the family income supplement, of tax credits and the shape of the PRSI adjustment, the Government have set out to hit the least well off most.
The people are disillusioned because they have learned they cannot trust the Government. They saw an attempt to pretend in July that current finances for this year were above target despite the fact that in the first six months overspending was in excess of the annual estimated figure. Six weeks later, contrary to what they were assured, the Estimates were £200 million out. Six weeks later again there was another revision, by £100 million of this estimate. That was the collapse of the cover-up. Mistrust of the Government now lies so deep that there is a total suspension of belief in the Government and all they say.
The Taoiseach is seen by leading members of his own party — I do not make any comments on the statements, but his party are saying it — as having surrounded himself with undesirable people from whom, they say, he is unwilling or unable to detach himself. He is seen by them as someone in whom they cannot have confidence. He has survived only by the refusal of the right to a secret ballot which alone can ensure, when leadership is contested, the freedom from fear necessary to give a true reflection of his Deputies' feelings. His conviction, carried on to the end of that particular battle, that he could survive only in this way reflects his deep contempt for his party, his belief that while in an open vote he would be opposed by 22, in a secret ballot he would have lost that election which would mean at least another 19 members of his party in the Dáil who in his belief can be moved to support him only by fear, and lack of guts, he believes, to vote according to the judgement of their consciences. It is he, not I, who by his rejection of a secret ballot, has so characterised his party.
The Taoiseach has been responsible for the most massive and sudden drop in support any party have experienced ever, to our knowledge, in this State. One fifth of those who said they would vote for the party in May has evaporated in five months. He is responsible for the erosion of confidence in our institutions, a growing disillusionment with politics among the electorate. He is responsible for deep concern among the Garda Síochána that justice is being subverted by interference of a type and on a scale that endangers the morale of the force and its effectiveness.
The Taoiseach is responsible for the collapse of the Anglo-Irish relationship to which, in a Government in which he was not dependent on Deputy Blaney, he professed to see the way through to a solution of the Northern Ireland problem. He is now responsible for discrediting the economic planning process at a moment when confidence in our ability to plan our future is critical. Rather than telling the truth about just how dangerous our situation is his plan attempts to create a belief that inflation, unemployment and the financial crisis can all be overcome simultaneously without any serious attempt to tackle the underlying causes of these difficulties.
His team of Ministers, to which he is proposing to add today, are the weakest in the history of the State, by common consent. I defy anybody who is not a committed supporter to contest this. This is as a result of a deliberate decision by the Taoiseach to exclude people of experience and ability because they will not accept the erosion of cabinet government. They will not go along with the attempt to install a presidential system contrary to the spirit of the Constitution.
In the past six months on the part of many members of the Government we have seen failures which individually and collectively add up to a record which could not command the confidence of the House and does not do so. The Minister for Finance was responsible for the phoney budget of last March which covered a loss of £370 million revenue and expenditure cuts by bringing forward phoney money from next year regardless of the damage to industry and employment. The same Minister was either unwilling or afraid or unable to give the full truth to the Dáil last July because of his fear of the Dáil and his knowledge of the inability of the Dáil to respond while in recess.
We had the Minister for Health proposing drug cuts for the poor but not from the rest of the community. He has been insensitive to any consideration of social justice. The Minister for Fisheries failed to take any action in Brussels in regard to Celtic Sea herring stocks, despite evidence that stocks are there, despite the fact that has been evident in Brussels in the last few days — and I have seen the evidence of it myself — that the Commission are willing to allow some fishing if a limitation to a reasonable amount can be guaranteed. The Minister did nothing until the crisis arose. Then, as recorded by Deputy Molloy, he agreed to go to Brussels the next day, broke his promise the following day, thus leading to the costly blocade of ports which forced him finally to get out to Brussels and raise the issue which he could have raised and settled months ago.
Then there is the Minister for Agriculture who enjoys less confidence amongst the agricultural community than any of his predecessors because of his evident unfamiliarity with and unwillingness to come to grips with the problems, indeed his dismissal of the problems as no problems.
There is the Minister for Foreign Affairs who lacks credibility outside Ireland as anyone with international contacts will know.
