Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I assure the Deputy we intend to complete our tenure if at all possible. The programme for Government is also predicated on balanced public finances and clearly, the crisis with which we are now contending means this is a major challenge and the top priority of any Government. As Opposition parties are finding out, their sums must add up if they want to put themselves forward as a credible alternative. I notice they are having some difficulty in doing so.

With regard to the programme for Government, the priorities are being reassessed by Ministers in the context of the budgets now available to them. As Deputy Gilmore has seen, a considerable slowdown in the growth of current expenditure is unavoidable. We also have the €2 billion savings which must be completed. These could have come from social welfare services or pensions. While Deputy Gilmore agrees with the need for cuts he does not agree to any in practice. The basic point to be made is that the programme for Government will be used as a means of identifying the priorities under the new circumstances in which we now operate, recognising that all of these commitments are predicated on trying to achieve budgetary balance.

With regard to providing more places for people in higher education, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, is in discussions with institutes throughout the country with regard to the potential in the next school year to provide places and courses more suitable and appropriate to the present economic circumstances and for those becoming unemployed. There is capacity in some of our institutes to achieve this. The Minister is working away on this in liaison with them.

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