John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

We are now at a critical point in our country's history. We are caught up in a global maelstrom that has felled some of the most powerful economic and financial entities of this age. Ireland is being subjected to the same negative forces as most other developed countries in the world — falling property prices, falling tax revenues, falling consumer confidence and a collapse in confidence in the banking sector. However, as one of the most open economies on this planet, we are experiencing those forces much more acutely than many others.

Much has been made in and outside this House of the recent international coverage given to Ireland. Some, indeed, have used this commentary as a political stick. We should remember that there has been a strong element of schadenfreude in some of that commentary, especially in Britain, which has been tinged in places by an element of colonial condescension. It has not been written with balance, but with malice in mind.

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