Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)

No one can claim that Ireland, as an open and small economy, should be immune from a 13% fall in world trade or that we could have avoided the impact of the credit crunch arising from a global banking system in crisis and the changes in the exchange rates between sterling and the euro.

Greed and gross irresponsibility in some quarters of the private sector make our task today much more difficult than it ought to be but now is not the time for the backward look. The truth is that we are much better prepared to adapt to the international downturn now than we were when the last recession hit during the 1970s and 1980s.

We must not repeat past mistakes by postponing necessary decisions or embroiling ourselves in negative campaigning. Now is the time to press ahead in the common good. At this time in our nation's history we must have statesmen and stateswomen on both sides of the House take the road of post-partisanship. We must have a higher purpose that transcends narrow political self-interest and our common cause should be country, not party. Our higher purpose should be the future of Ireland and all her people not the short-term gains of political expediency. The Government will hold firmly to its decisions and will see them through. When this period of Irish history comes to be written, it is my firm belief that it will be recorded in favour of those courageous enough to do what was right by our country and at the expense of those who shirked their responsibilities as Irish citizens.

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