We have a major crisis in providing buses to get our students to school. I have come into the House today because a view is being expressed outside this Chamber that needs to be said publicly. The public sees the Government running at less than 50%. At the start of this pandemic, I praised the Tánaiste and the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, for all the work they were doing. I will compliment anyone who works hard for this country and I praised the Tánaiste and the Minister for that.

After the election, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party came together to lead this country, at a time when Sinn Féin ran for the hills. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald was sick with Covid-19 but the rest of the party disappeared and there were rewards out for them.

All we are seeing on television at the moment is negativity. Fine Gael went into government with Fianna Fáil and the Green Party to lead this country. That Government got the bus just off the top of the hill and stopped it on an incline. The Government formed and went to the top of the hill but it is now going down that hill at 100 mph and is coming to a 90-degree bend. The job of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party is to talk with one voice and not to take the Government apart by having potshots at each other on the television to be popular.

The Rural Independent Group canvassed for the rural pubs to open because they are the only places in which people can meet and connect. The Tánaiste's party did not even know when he said that he thought that the pubs should open, and that was tweeted. The Tánaiste should stop being populist and do the job that he signed up to do. Fine Gael must work with Fianna Fáil and the Green Party to lead this country. Sinn Féin will highlight all the negative things because that is what it does. Sinn Féin is not the only party in opposition.

The Rural Independent Group sought to form a government with Fine Gael. Fine Gael did not want that and I respect that. I respect Fine Gael when it does good. This country needs leadership. It does not need populism or a Government whose members take each other apart on television. We need the Government to lead and give people hope that we can straighten things out.

What we hear from Sinn Féin is only spin. We know that. I am from an Opposition party and I am saying it myself. It is spin. Sinn Féin has the money to do it. It is destroying the name of Ireland with all the spin it is coming up with. I am asking Fine Gael and the other Government parties to come together and lead this country with one voice.

I thank the Deputy. The Government is working as one and has been since it formed. I appreciate that there are people who are opposed to this Government and do not want it to last. That does not include the Deputy, but it does include others. Those people will do their best to stoke up, invent and exaggerate any differences that may occur between different politicians and parties. I remember well, during the height of the Brexit struggle, that people would go out of their way to ask me a question, ask Deputy Coveney a slightly different question, and, when we gave slightly different answers, suggest that he and I were at war over Brexit. That was always rubbish. I see a certain element of that narrative now being promoted by our opponents and other people.

I have no idea what the Deputy means when he says that members of the Government parties have been taking each other apart on television. I have not witnessed that and I would be interested to hear the Deputy give an example.

The rural pubs are going to be allowed to open on Monday, which is a welcome development. It is something for which the Deputy campaigned and fought. We are putting a lot of trust in our publicans to make sure that they conduct the reopening safely and ensure that people are socially distanced. I have confidence in them to do that and believe that they will be able to lead the way and show what can be done. That will, hopefully, allow pubs in Dublin to follow suit in a couple of weeks' time.

What I said at my Parliamentary Party meeting, which I am sorry was not webcast, was that I believed that rural pubs should be allowed to open and that the Government was working on a plan to do exactly that. The Taoiseach felt the same. I have never suggested that there was a difference between us on that matter because there was not. Others made that suggestion. What is their agenda?

The public view at the moment is that we are going downhill at 100 mph while the Taoiseach is driving the bus. The public sees the Tánaiste as trying to make the bus skid and the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, asleep in the back. That is what the public is looking at.

I spoke already about spin and the rewards that were put out for Sinn Féin Deputies. Sinn Féin is only here to dissolve this Government. People are suffering and we need one voice to help the people in this country. Sinn Féin can spin all it likes but all it is doing is damaging this country and stopping it from getting back to where it needs to be to help the people. They go out with their food parcels and take pictures; that is what they do and they have the money to put that out in the media and spin. Deputy McDonald was in RTÉ the other day when this House came to a stop. She was in RTÉ before the House stopped sitting in order to be on the television. Sinn Féin is negative but we want to be positive. We want to work, go forward and represent the people of this country. We want to slow this bus down so that we can get around the bend and keep everyone safe. The Government is on the bus and leading the country.

I appreciate from where the Deputy is coming and understand his sentiments. What the Deputy will hear, and is hearing, from the Government is one message that we have agreed collectively. He will hear lots of different voices explaining that message and that is what has been seen over the past couple of days. On Tuesday, we agreed and published a Government plan to deal with Covid for the next six to nine months. The Deputy would have seen Ministers and Deputies from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael out there explaining and defending that plan. That is exactly what we have done.

The Opposition did something different. It decided to try to pick holes in and undermine the plan, thereby undermining the public health message more generally. The parties in government showed absolute unity, went out there and defended the plan. We said that the plan is ours and we did not disown it in any way. The Deputy will see more of that in the next couple of weeks.