LABOUR PARTY:LABOUR IS holding to its demand that the Government agrees to the passing of the Finance Bill by Friday before it will withdraw its motion of no confidence.
Party leader Eamon Gilmore last night refused to countenance any further slippage in the timetable it has set for passing the Bill, even by a few days.
At a press conference in Dublin, Mr Gilmore said he did not accept the Taoiseach’s claim that it was impossible to complete all stages of the Bill by Friday. “If the political will is there, it can be done,” he said.
He pointed out that 40 hours of debating time was available for the Bill and many of the measures it contained were merely confirming provisions introduced in last December’s Budget.
Mr Gilmore denied that Labour, which opposes the Bill, was playing politics by facilitating its passage.
He said the party had been “absolutely consistent” in its approach to seeking an end to the Government and for this reason had tabled the motion of no confidence. This is due to be debated tomorrow and on Wednesday.
He said appeals for the party to allow “a couple more days” for passage of the Bill had more to do with arrangements for Fianna Fáil’s recovery than that of the State.
Mr Gilmore pointed out that one of the most complex pieces of legislation dealt with by the Oireachtas, the Credit Institutions Stabilisation Bill, was dealt with in a single day just before Christmas “because the Government wanted it done”.
He said yesterday’s events marked another stage in the disintegration of the most dysfunctional Government that had to be brought to an end as quickly as possible. “This situation cannot be allowed to continue. We need certainty. The people need leadership and they need hope.”
He urged the Green Party to support this “sensible way” forward.
At a Labour event earlier, Mr Gilmore said it was clearly not in the State’s interest to continue with a “dysfunctional” government for as long as 10 weeks led by a Taoiseach who was no longer leader of his own party, at a time when there were huge issues to be dealt with.
“Brian Cowen himself said only this day last week that it was not in the country’s interest that you would have a situation that you had a taoiseach who was no longer a leader of the political party to which he belonged, and he’s right on that, so there is an urgency about getting this moved on.”
Asked whether his immediate priority was an election or getting the Finance Bill passed, Mr Gilmore said Labour’s immediate priority was the recovery of the State and “we can’t have recovery of the country until this government is out of office”.
He said the people want “a fresh start” and “the longer that this dysfunctional government stays in office the more that will be delayed”.
In relation to the Fianna Fáil leadership race, he said it was really immaterial who became leader of the party.
The issue now was not who would be Fianna Fáil’s leader but about leadership of the State and for the State and getting a new government in place to get to grips with the huge economic problems we have and renegotiation of the EU-IMF deal.
“I think Fianna Fáil should be allowed time and space in opposition to deal with its leadership issues,” he said.
Asked who would be taoiseach if Labour formed a coalition with Fine Gael after the election, he said Labour was contesting the election on the basis that it wanted to lead the next government. There was an opportunity now for a fresh start in this country with a government that was led neither by Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael for the first time.
He ruled out Labour going into coalition with Sinn Féin.
