Aideen Hayden (Labour)

Tá brón orm ach níl an Ghaeilge agam chomh agus atá sí ag an Seanadóir Ó Clochartaigh so I will speak in English. On the referendum, I must be one of the few people who is disappointed we are having a referendum on the fiscal stability pact for the reason that I do not believe the Constitution is the right place to be enshrining these types of measures. The Constitution is primarily there to protect rights and liberties and I would much prefer we were having a constitutional referendum on the rights to the child rather than fiscal stability. I do not believe it is appropriate. In the 1970s we were talking about John Maynard Keynes, in the 1980s it was Milton Friedman. Times change, as do economic circumstances. I do not believe these types of measures should be enshrined in a Constitution. However, the Attorney General has seen otherwise and of course I will be supporting it as I consider these measures are important for the future of the Irish economy.

On a note of caution, I am not happy to hear anti-German sentiment both in this House and outside of it. It is inappropriate. It is not the fault of the German people or some plot on their part that we, Europe, are in the financial position we are in. I do not believe it is helpful to the debate on this issue for the Irish people to be personalising it around the German people.

I ask the Leader to bring in the Minister of State with responsibility for housing and perhaps the Minister for Finance to have an emergency debate on the housing market and the construction sector. Senators may have seen the CSO statistics published yesterday showing that house prices fell last year by almost 20% and in January of this year we had one of the sharpest falls ever in house prices. This is a very important issue. For every fall in house prices, Irish people are in greater negative equity and the balance sheet of our banks is in even worse condition than it was before. There is obviously a reason for the continuing fall in prices. There is a lack of confidence in the market but there is also a lack of finance. We are back to mortgage lending in the way we had it in the 1970s.