First, the Minister, in a long contribution failed to answer any [1035] of the key questions involved in this dispute. She has already left the House. It muxt be realised that the Minister has not answered the questions raised about this deal. She did not explain why no independent valuation was undertaken. She did not explain why others could buy it cheaper than she could, and make a substantial killing. Neither did she explain how the Higher Education Authority, whose statutory authority should have been involved in this whole process, were omitted. The questions raised by Deputies remain to be answered.
I should like to address some remarks to a contribution of Deputy Roche yesterday. I reject emphatically the insinuations made by that Deputy. Deputy Roche's contribution was yet another pathetic attempt to distract attention from the real issue, the Government's inability to properly fulfil their functions. The land to which Deputy Roche referred has been in the Bruton family for 90 years. My parents are the principal owners of that land. I have a minority interest in those lands. Deputy John Bruton has no beneficial ownership in those lands. Some years ago an extension of Dunboyne Village boundary rezoned part of the lands. Later my father was approached by developers who wished to develop that land. Neither Deputy John Bruton nor I made any representations to Meath County Council regarding the zoning or the laying on of services to this land. Neither of us was involved in any way in the negotiations for its purchase. The developers alone were involved in seeking planning permission for the land. Neither Deputy John Bruton nor I made any representations to Meath County Council, to an Bord Pleanla or to any other agency in connection with the planning application. Subsequently, the developer, for his own reasons, failed to proceed with the purchase and, in accordance with the contract to which he had agreed, forfeited both his deposit and a subsequent payment made for an extension of time to complete the purchase. The tax content of these payments is [1036] entirely a matter for decision by the Revenue Commissioners who will have full access to all the facts.
Deputy Roche earlier today on radio suggested he did not think there was any wrong-doing in this. Yet he used the privilege of the House yesterday to cast a slur on my character. I feel more sad than angry about this. It shows how far some people in Fianna Fil have descended from their proud traditions. I reiterate that the deal involved is entirely transparent; I have nothing to hide. Fine Gael are an open party. We are fully committed to full declaration of interests by office holders. We will not be deflected in any way from pursuing vigorously abuse of public office for personal gain. That, let Deputy Roche take note, will continue to be our position as a party in this House.
This debate should end in a general election. A general election would ensure that we had a decent code of practice to uphold scrupulous integrity in public affairs. The public would demand that; Fine Gael would insist on it. The cost of a general election, about which many people complain in the media, in the long run would be a cheap price to pay for that code of practice to be introduced into public affairs here, restoring confidence from the level to which it has now fallen.
The debate of the past few days has demonstrated the vicious, argumentative and agressive behaviour of a Government who have lost all sense of direction, are being carried along only by the tide of events, buffeted and bruised as they go. All through the summer various Ministers endeavoured to put out their own life rafts. We had the Minister for Agriculture and Food on the family planning issue; the Minister for Justice on the Shannon stop-over issue; the Minister for Finance on public pay, all of them hoping to salvage something for themselves from the wreck in which they were involved. Yet the Taoiseach clings tenaciously to the wheel hanging on for dear life but caring little where he is heading.
The Progressive Democrats remain unsure whether to cut off the engines. Now only at the twelfth hour do we hear [1037] that they have decided to let the thing go on. The rest of the crew of this boat are fuming and scheming about the role of the Taoiseach of the day. Everyone in this House knows that the majority no longer have confidence in the Taoiseach's Government.
The real issues raised by Deputy John Bruton in his opening remarks have not been answered. The Government are no longer in control, they are reacting and refusing to reform. Failure to reform is the tangible cause of a catalogue of failings that exist in Ireland today. In any measure that begins from the value of the individual the record of achievement on the part of the Government is a sorry one.
There is the enforced idleness of 260,000 people. We know now that unemployment is the single largest cause of disadvantage and poverty in Ireland. Then there are the 5,000 children who drop out of school each year with no qualifications whatsoever to end up unemployed, or in the back streets of London. There are the 25,000 people with a mental handicap and their carers, who have no services to turn to, with their carers struggling to cope, with no sleep, no break and little or no help. Then there are the 800 young homeless people roaming our streets today prey to being sucked into a life of crime. There are also the 30,000 families in substandard accommodation with no hope of being adequately housed and the 30,000 on public waiting lists excluded from any opportunity of receiving attention.
Those are the failings we must overcome, the failings of the existing policies, leaving so many of our people trapped in wastelands, marginalised, kept out. The failure of this Government to reform has been tragic in the last few years before European integration, affording us the last chance to achieve the standards that will allow us compete four-square in Europe. Our President rightly pointed out that there is a danger we will be left struggling in the backwash as other European countries stride ahead. That is the price we pay for the unwillingness of [1038] the Government to reform. They are a Government no longer capable of producing sustainable strategies for development. Having taken the summer off they are now engaged in trying frantically to cobble together a package, one that will inspire no confidence but which will once again keep the Taoiseach hanging on to power. In their hearts the Progressive Democrats must recognise that the Government are doomed.
Perhaps we all like to put off elections. Nobody wants to go out in the cold weather to meet angry, frustrated voters. As citizens we must see that this is the time for this Government to stand aside. The nation wants to move on.

