One of the amazing side issues to this motion of confidence in the Government is the reluctance of the junior partner in Government to participate in the debate. Indeed, they are threatening to withhold support for a Government in which they have participated for the past two years and four months.
The purpose of this debate is not to gaze into a crystal ball to see what this Government will do in the future but rather to measure their performance during the past two years and four months. It is clear that the Progressive Democrats, four Fianna Fil back benchers and the Opposition parties in this House do not have confidence in the Government. Judas like behaviour is apparent in the activities of the Progressive Democrats. Even though collective responsibility has been vested in the nation's interest in the Government two Cabinet Ministers are withholding their confidence while negotiations are taking place.
On this side of the House we do not have confidence in the Government because of what they presided over in the past. The Government should be alarmed about the fact that not only has this House lost confidence in them but that the public have. All the barometers and indicators used to measure the performance of the Government point to abysmal failure. Emigration reached record levels during the term of office of the Government. Unemployment has reached its highest level in the history of the State, the public finances are in disarray while farmers are fearful for their future. The scandals of recent weeks have only crystalised what was already a high level of dissatisfaction with the performance of the Government.
What is unfortunate is that the level of apathy and cynicism among the public towards politics and politicians has increased and they no longer tend to distinguish between those politicians who behave in a correct and honourable [709] manner and those who callously disregard procedures and long accepted standards in public life. It is for that reason that I put down a clear marker that not all politicians are the same. If they were, we would not need to have this debate as we would all be in agreement and applauding ourselves for presiding over record levels of unemployment and emigration, for the fact that the public finances are in disarray and that all the other indicators point to an inadequate Government performance.
Fine Gael are not a party of strokers and dealers. They have a proud record in administration. One of the interesting things which emerged from the recent scandals was that the CII considered it necessary to implement a code of conduct and lay down procedures to be followed in the business world. However, the Government do not seem to have learned any lessons or recognise that the time is now opportune to introduce a code of ethics and standards to be followed by politicians in discharging their duties. The public will draw their own conclusions from the Government's failure to announce that it is their intention to introduce a code of ethics.
There has been too much emphasis in the debate so far on the scandals of recent weeks. I do not need to base my arguments on those issues but I should like to refer to one of them, the Telecom ireann affair. The following point is indicative of the creeping bureaucracy and centralisation evident during the term of office of the Government. Why did Telecom ireann who have the most technologically advanced communications system in the world consider it necessary to purchase a headquarters in the hub of the capital city given that EEXCO, the financial exchange company based in Killorglin, can compete with the best financial exchange companies in the world from that location? How come Telecom ireann saw fit to pay in excess of 9 million for a site on which to build their headquarters in Ballsbridge? That scandal has not been [710] tackled or commented upon by any commentator. One could buy a serviced green field site in any rural town, build an office block which would meet the requirements of Telecom ireann, and operate with a very advanced telecommunications system a very efficient headquarters for the price they paid for the Ballsbridge site. That did not happen and it is evidence of the creeping centralisation and bureaucracy which pervades every element of the Government and decision makers at national level at present. I want to move on from that but it was the one point that really got my back up in regard to the scandal.
So many other things happened that the scandals really only crystallised the level of dissatisfaction with the Government. I want to dwell on four points. I want to refer to unemployment because many of the people with whom I went to school and college are now eking out a living in London, America and Australia, indeed in the four corners of the earth. I am not saying that Fine Gael have all the answers to the problem of unemployment. However, when this party made an offer to depoliticise the whole unemployment issue, to take it out of the realm of point scoring on the backs of our emigrants, the Government refused to entertain that suggestion, to their eternal shame.
The unemployment crisis is the single gravest issue confronting this country. I saw "Newstime" on RTE a week or ten days ago at the height of the clamouring by our young people for Morrison visas. The programme came from Galway and I was struck by a girl with a law degree seeking an apprenticeship. She had spent two years in employment other than the field in which she was qualified and she had now had enough. It behoves all of us to put the political point scoring on the unemployment issue on the back burner. The Government should no longer close the doors on all Members of this House who want to contribute in a meaningful way to resolving the problem.
The second point with which I should like to deal is the whole area of agriculture. It is very relevant in the context [711] of unemployment because the Government seem to fail to realise the potential in the agricultural industry to contribute to a significant reduction in our unemployment levels. I come from the Cork North West constituency which is a microcosm of life in rural Ireland. It is largely an agricultural community with a PAYE workforce, much of which is a spin-off directly from agriculture, including food processing, and the service industry, which are also dependent on agriculture.
There is an appalling lack of confidence among the agricultural community regarding their future. The Government's failure to respond in any meaningful manner to the Common Agricultural Policy reforms proposed by Commissioner MacSharry has alarmed them. When you consider that 16,000 jobs are estimated to be lost in the PAYE sector alone as a result of the Common Agricultural Policy reforms, one can appreciate the level of despair which exists. We have not presented any alternatives to Common Agricultural Policy reform and if we are to be taken seriously at European level we cannot be merely reactionary at that forum, we must come up with viable alternatives. That we have not done so is to the eternal shame of the Minister for Agriculture and Food who has spent the last six months in the bunker avoiding the public gaze and refusing to answer questions in relation to where he stands on a number of important issues which at present afflict the agricultural community.
ERAD, the great white hope for TB eradication, is in disarray. The level of grant payments to farmers is nothing short of criminal. I had occasion to contact the Department of Agriculture and Food in Cavan recently about installation aid payments, I was told that 25 would be paid between now and Christmas but that they could not give any assurance that any would be paid in 1992, which is an appalling statement.
The third point with which I wish to deal is the attitude of the country and the Government to the EC in general.
[712] Ireland's future is intransically bound up with the EC; we have gained immeasurably from our membership. Fianna Fil's attitude to EC membership is inconsistent and reactionary. Cast your mind back to the Single European Act which paved the way for many of the benefits we have received since it was passed and which Fianna Fil opposed in Opposition. When the going got tough Commissioner MacSharry, when he was an MEP, advocated that perhaps Ireland should reconsider its membership. If there was a time when our citizens questioned whether membership of the EC was beneficial it was when Commissioner MacSharry announced his reform proposals for the Common Agricultural Policy.
There is no long term vision in relation to EC membership from the Government, there is no public awareness about the importance of the EC to our economy, simply because the Government have not led the debate. A whole series of important issues are now coming to the fore in Europe, including monetary and political union. The Government will go to Maastricht in December and will not present an Irish standpoint on any of these issues. They will merely react to the proposals of other Governments for our future. Surely, if we had our interests at heart, we should be in there presenting our vision of a new Europe rather than merely reacting to other peoples opinions as to how a new Europe should develop?
My final point is in relation to the whole question of Dil reform. The Progressive Democrats raised public expectations like no other party had ever done in the formation of the Programme for Government in regard to their vision of Dil reform. However, to date, there has not been any Dil reform under the Government. There are 166 Deputies in this Chamber, 95 per cent of whom, because of the way the structures of parliament operate, are nothing more than glorified messenger boys for their constituents. The present system alienates the vast majority of TDs from making any meaningful contribution towards a resolution of all the problems which [713] afflict this country. There is a cosy Cabinet club which assumes a monopoly of wisdom on all our problems. Is it any wonder that we are in a quagmire with all the problems of unemployment, emigration and public finances? This is because 14 wise men assume this monopoly of wisdom and exclude from any meaningful contribution the rest of the Members of this House.
We need a proper committee system. There are proposals reported in today's newspapers from France and Germany regarding a European army. We do not have a foreign affairs committee where we could discuss that matter and take a stand on it If we had a good committee system we could reduce the level of bickering in this Chamber because much of the common ground would have been previously ascertained and only matters of dispute would emerge on the floor of this House. At present everything is in dispute in the House because there is no forum where areas of common ground can be determined. It is very regrettable that we do not have a committee system for debating budgetary provisions as they are adopted without consideration of their implications after one question is put and one vote taken. It is an appalling system when you consider the amount of money involved and the difficulties in collecting it.
The Programme for Economic and Social Progress has further diminished contributions which elected Members can make to policies in a meaningful manner. All decisions are now taken by the Government in consultation with the social partners. The process of consultation with the social partners is good but it is not a substitute for real parliamentary democracy where all the Members in this Chamber would be involved. It is another indication of the contempt with which this Government treat this Chamber.
As I said at the outset I have four points on which I wish to comment with regard to the confidence motion in this House.

In conclusion, I did not need to hear of the scandals to vote no confidence in this Administration. I had lost confidence in them long before any of these issues emerged, but they have only served to reinforce and redouble my efforts to ensure that the lifetime of this Administration is short.

