As we move towards the summer recess it is appropriate to raise one final time with the Taoiseach some of the key concerns I have put to him on the floor of the House but which have failed to receive any kind of meaningful response. Over the course of this Dáil session I have tried to engage with the Taoiseach on a number of extremely important issues such as the plight of the Omagh bomb victims, the ongoing denial of justice to the family of the late Fr. Niall Molloy, the refusal to meet or engage with the families of the Stardust tragedy and the pursuit of policies by this Government which have done nothing to reverse the horror of mass youth unemployment and emigration.

Last but not least I wish to raise the Taoiseach’s heavy-handed approach to ramming through the so-called Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill. Instead of promised change-----

This is not statements. This is Leaders’ Questions.

I know it is not. I am coming to the question.

It is rubbish.

I thought you said I had two minutes, a Cheann Comhairle.

This is Leaders’ Questions. The Deputy is supposed to put questions.

I am putting a question.

We are not making statements.

If you will allow me, a Cheann Comhairle, I am making the point that I failed to get answers to certain questions.

Deputy McGrath cannot go back over the entire year.

You are taking up my time now, a Cheann Comhairle.

It is a fundamental point to make.

Will I get some time back for the interruption? Instead of promised change and new politics, a reduction in quangos and a five-point plan, all we received were broken promises.

It is the same old politics, the same quangos with a few new ones and a Government that has the nerve to award itself an A grade for a job well done. We have a raft of extra taxes, less money in people's pockets and threats by Revenue to small businesses, while giant multinationals walk away scot free. Women on maternity leave have been taxed more, carers have been targeted and people in bankruptcy or negative equity are told to live on €20 per week. All of these have one aspect in common. They point to an arrogant and out-of-touch Government in which the people can no longer have any faith.

Given the shameful legacy of broken promises at the Government's half-way point, why should anyone believe a word that comes out of the Taoiseach's mouth? How can citizens have any trust that their lives, job prospects and education or health needs will be in a stronger position at the end of the Government's term than they were before it? Does the Taoiseach not accept that he has failed to make any meaningful impact on the ordinary daily lives of most people? Can he at least be honest about that?

Will the Taoiseach be honest about that?

Did Noel Davern write that?

That is a rhetorical question actually-----

Sit down, so.

-----written by the local chairman of Deputy Mattie McGrath's independent organisation.

Noel Davern. Did he write it?

For instance, there has been no increase in income tax like the Deputy mentioned. There have been 16,000 new start-ups of individual businesses in the past 12 months. We have halted the rot of losing 7,500 jobs per month for three years to a point where 2,000 jobs are now being created every month. Today, the Deputy will have heard the news about Symantec announcing 400 new jobs, 200 this year and 200 more in the next two years. Last week, we had the privilege of breaking ground with Kerry Group on a €100 million investment in Naas. We have had the major investment by Glanbia on the Kilkenny-Waterford border, with up to 1,500 jobs across the Deputy's constituency and right up as far as County Louth. We have had the progress made by the finance Ministers in respect of our European colleagues and the progress made in regard to the Presidency about the approach towards banking union, a single supervisory mechanism and so on. We have had inclusions in the last budget, particularly in regard to small and medium enterprises, of opportunities for new access to credit. I note statements from banks saying they are now lending more than previously. They are required to lend because of targets set by the Central Bank and so on.

I do not accept the Deputy's long litany of issues that he raised. I met the people from the Stardust tragedy on many occasions in the past and the question of the late Fr. Molloy was raised in the House on a number of occasions, but these are issues the Deputy has raised before. He can raise them by way of Topical Issue or parliamentary question. His rant is rhetorical.

He got no answers.

He did not ask any question.

The Taoiseach should look in the mirror when he talks about my ranting. We should get a big mirror and place it there for him. He rants, but no one believes him. I do not know whether the Minister, Deputy Noonan, wants to pinch him to bring him back to reality, but I do not believe him. Like all of the Taoiseach's other replies, that was an exercise in denial and an evasion over the real state of the country. If he cared to ask, anyone would tell him that.

How did the Deputy know what the Taoiseach was going to say when the Deputy wrote that?

I wonder whether the Taoiseach remembers the remarkable disability campaigner, Joanna Jordan, who has accused him of back-tracking on his personal promise-----

How did the Deputy know the reply when he wrote that?

Hold on one second. Will the Deputy ask a supplementary question?

This is a fact. The truth is bitter.

This is not an Adjournment debate.

I did not say it was.

This is Leaders' Questions.

I will come to my question. I have two minutes, as the Ceann Comhairle pointed out-----

The Deputy does not have two minutes.

-----and one minute.

The Deputy has two minutes to ask a question.

If the Ceann Comhairle had been fair to me other times and given me cover, I would have appreciated it.

We do not have Adjournment debates on Leaders' Questions, for goodness sake.

It is Leaders' Questions, but the Taoiseach wanted to come back with a rant and a spin. No one believes it.

Where is the question if it is Leaders' Questions?

The Taoiseach does not believe it himself. He referred to my speech being written by the chairman of my constituency organisation. I do not have one. Thankfully, I do not have a list of overpaid advisers-----

Hear, hear.

-----keeping me aloft and away from the people.

What about the €50,000 in a leader's allowance?

Will Deputy Mattie McGrath please put his question?

I must answer for myself to the people of Tipperary.

Is the Deputy's family doing this work for him now?

Will Deputies stay quiet?

No one else can get a job.

Deputy Butler, will you, please, settle down? It is hard enough without you adding to it.

He should settle down.

Will Deputy Mattie McGrath ask his question?

I am trying to, but-----

It is a supplementary question.

Yes. I just said that.

Well, put it to the Taoiseach.