SEANAD REPORT:WHILE STATING that to ask the next government to implement a budget brought in by the present discredited administration was "a big ask", Frances Fitzgerald, Fine Gael leader in the House, said her party would stand by the Republic and would do the right thing.

“But what the public want is a change of government.” Ms Fitzgerald said it was understandable that the Irish people were very concerned about the safety of the currency, their savings and where the country was going.

The Greens had said people felt they had been misled and betrayed by the Government. It was unprecedented for members of the Cabinet to speak in that fashion and not to resign. Ms Fitzgerald said her party should be given a lot more detail about the Memorandum of Understanding that was going to be agreed between the IMF and the Government. “We need real quality information to be made available to everyone.”

Joe O’Toole (Ind) said he was very heartened by what Ms Fitzgerald had said.

He agreed that “a big ask” was being made of Fine Gael and Labour, “but let us recognise that our future now is in their hands and they could bring down the Government at this time if they wished to do so”.

Alex White (Lab) said it was not reasonable to suggest the Opposition parties, in circumstances where there was merely a caretaker government, should act as a kind of surrogate government in relation to bringing in a budget.