Tomorrow the people of Britain will have an opportunity to vote in a general election.

To vote out the Labour Party.

The Deputies opposite should be careful about what they would wish for, it could catch on.

It has a younger Labour Party.

Allow Deputy Gilmore to continue without interruption.

At least they will have an opportunity to cast a vote, elect a new parliament and decide who should be governing the country.

The Deputy is back to wearing the blue tie already.

Gordon has not been in power for five years.

The problem here is that the Taoiseach does not have the bottle to give the people of this country the same opportunity.

It is perfectly clear from the Taoiseach's disposition, despite the fact that he has lost the confidence of the people and no longer has a mandate to govern, that he has no immediate intention of giving the people an opportunity — like the people of Britain will have tomorrow — of having their say. There is no excuse for the Taoiseach denying the people of Donegal, south Dublin and Waterford their full representation in Dáil Éireann.

Deputy Ó Caoláin and his Sinn Féin colleagues will later today table a motion to move the writ for the by-election in Donegal. By-elections are also pending in south Dublin and in Waterford. Donegal has been down a Deputy since 8 June last, some 11 months, south Dublin has been down a Deputy for 14 of the past 22 months, and Waterford has been short a Deputy since the former Minister, Martin Cullen resigned on 8 March. People in these constituencies in Donegal, Dublin and Waterford have the same concerns as other people in other constituencies about job losses, businesses in trouble, shortage of credit, people who find it difficult to pay their mortgages and people who are worried about their future. They have a right to have their full representation in Dáil Éireann. The question I want to ask the Taoiseach is when will he allow the people of Donegal, south Dublin and Waterford to complete their full representation in the Dáil? When will he set a date for the three by-elections?

We have a mandate to govern. It derives from the Dáil, in the same way as when the Deputy was a member of a Government. That mandate is legitimate, proper and appropriate.

On the question of the by-elections, that is a matter for the House to consider at any time. As the Deputy said, there is a matter to be discussed here and at the instigation of Sinn Féin it will be debated in the House.

There is a flaw in the Taoiseach's logic. If the mandate to govern comes from the Dáil, then surely it should come from a full Dáil and therefore it should not come from a Dáil where, for the first time in a long time, there are three seats which have not been filled.

Every time the Taoiseach is asked this question, he has a way of dodging it; he has told us that the Government has not made a decision on this. He is making it sound as though the right of people to be represented in Dáil Éireann is some kind of a form of political patronage that can be doled out by Fianna Fáil and that a by-election is something that can be handed out like a national lottery grant. It is not like that. People have a right to vote in elections and to have their full representation here. We are in a ludicrous situation such that if we were to ask the Taoiseach if he will have an election for the Dublin mayor, he would find every reason under the sun to give us a vague answer rather than commit himself to a date for that election lest he might have to have the by-elections on the same date.

There is a long overdue referendum on children's rights and every time he will be asked when he will set a date for that referendum, he will give some other vague answer, again in case he is pinned down and he might have to set a date. If he sets a date for the referendum on children's rights, he will have to hold the three by-elections.

I have rarely seen any Taoiseach or a Head of any Government anywhere running so scared of the public as the Taoiseach is now. He should set the date for the by-elections and allow the people of Donegal, Dublin South and Waterford to have their right, a right that was fought for by people who have gone before us, to have their full representation in the Dáil and to accept the verdict of the people. When we hold these three by-elections, we can then put to the test whether the Taoiseach has a mandate in the Dáil to continue governing.

Deputy Gilmore seeks to lecture us again on how we view the situation. I do not regard it as a matter of political patronage. I am elected here on the same basis as the Deputy, perhaps for even longer. To be lectured on those issues is not something I have to consider from him.

With regard to the business the Dáil is conducting, the Government has, uniquely in this House, shown the capacity to take the decisions which have been necessary to ensure we did not find ourselves in the situation in which, unfortunately, some other country has found itself at present. It is because of that coherent response to those sorts of difficulties that we are able to look forward to continuing with these kinds of actions and decisions in the months and years ahead.

Specifically, it is a matter for the House to decide these matters; it is not a matter for Government. If matters are moved, they will be voted on in that way.

We will have a free vote then.