Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for affording us the opportunity to speak on this particular resolution.

It is important to say at the outset that the Taoiseach and the Government have been commendably frank in this debate and throughout the crisis besetting this country since the international economy tipped into recession. We have tried to be frank, open and honest with the public and that is illustrated by the Taoiseach's statement, very clearly enunciated on a number of occasions, that we will see a 10% erosion in Irish living standards over the next 18 months to two years. It takes something to admit that, to be honest with the public and say, in effect, that this is not going to be easy or nice, but rather very difficult - perhaps the greatest and toughest challenge any Government has had to face. It is not an easy time to be in government, and I suspect that many of the Members opposite, in Fine Gael and Labour, would have to do virtually the same things we are now doing with public spending and taxation were they in power. Privately, many of them, I believe, will admit to that outside the Chamber.

I had the privilege of sitting beside the Taoiseach this morning when this debate opened. It was remarkable, in many ways, to listen to the comments and speeches emanating from the Labour Party leader, Deputy Gilmore, his predecessor, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, and his immediate predecessor, Deputy Pat Rabbitte. It struck me very forcibly that the Labour Party is the least reformed left wing social democratic party on the European landscape. It has not, or does not appear to have, got the message that even the British Labour Party has got. I was a member of the British Labour Party in the 1980s, when-----

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