Taoiseach Brian Cowen has rejected a call by the Labour Party for an immediate General Election.
Mr Cowen accused the Opposition of driving down national morale by exaggerating our problems after Labour’s Justice Spokesman Pat Rabbitte said the best thing he could do was dissolve the Government.
Mr Rabbitte told the Dáil the mood in Leinster House reminded him of ‘the last days of the Roman Empire’.
Mr Rabbitte added that the best thing the Taoiseach could do was to get in his car and go to the Park to ask the President to dissolve the Dáil so a new Government could provide certainty.
But Mr Cowen said if Mr Rabbitte thought a new government based on the divisions evident between the current Opposition parties could provide certainty, he was a better man than him.
He added that the people driving down morale were those exaggerating the scale of the problems.
Earlier, at Leaders' Questions, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said there should be civil actions against senior Anglo Irish Bank executives who had encrypted key files.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore accused the Taoiseach of systematically slaughtering watchdog bodies that were created to stand up for the rights of citizens and of undermining the independence of the Ombudsman’s Office by challenging two of its reports.
