Jimmy Devins (Sligo-North Leitrim, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute on this important issue. Since last Thursday, the worry on everybody's mind relates to the future of the country. The country now faces the greatest challenge there has ever been. There has not been a greater threat since the foundation of the State. I do not say this lightly or for dramatic effect; I say it because I believe it implicitly. If this country was invaded by an enemy, there would be uproar and resistance. The challenges we face constitute a danger to our sovereign State just as great as any such invasion and perhaps even greater because they are insidious.

Like many Members, I am not an economist nor do I possess special expertise in this area but like the vast majority of the Irish people, I understand figures and they speak for themselves. We need approximately €50 billion to run the country every year and we are currently taking in approximately €30 billion. Added to that is the cost of the bailout of the banks, a figure that fluctuates between €35 billion and €50 billion in total. If I take the lower figure, it means that this year the State has to come up with a financial plan to bridge a gap of between €50 billion and €55 billion. We do not have the money and, therefore, ways must be found to bridge that gap. Whatever solutions are arrived at, there will be suffering and hardship. It is important that the less well off are protected to the greatest extent. Any country that calls itself a democracy has to make sure certain public services, be they in the health or education sectors, are available to all people, not just the well off.

That view is shared by all Members and all of us have the best interests of the country and our constituents at heart. We have had enough of inter-party wrangling and squabbling. There will be time to debate the reasons we are in this dreadful position but let us deal with the position and get over this crisis. I will use a medical analogy. The current debate reminds me of a patient lying on a life support machine seriously ill while around the bed those charged with caring for him or her argue and fight among themselves. Unfortunately, that will only have one outcome. I warmly welcome the call by a number of Fine Gael Senators to put aside party political infighting just as I welcome the Taoiseach's offer to share the expertise available in the Department of Finance with Opposition Members. I appeal not only to the leaders of Opposition parties but to all Members to consider carefully where we are as a country before they reject what has been said by colleagues.

The country is in such a perilous state that it is close to death's door. We need to look and think outside the box. All Members have a duty and responsibility to stop bickering and fighting among themselves. Let us recognise the crisis we are in and, more important, let us all work together to come up with solutions that will restore our country. If that means forming a government of national unity, then let us consider that. Every Member has talent, intellect and experience of life. With all of us working together, there has to be a chance the country will get out of this crisis. It will be much more difficult and likely to fail if we continue to operate as we have in the past putting party and self before the national interest. We have a life threatening disease which is threatening to put our country, as a sovereign stable democracy, at death's door. Let us all please put aside our differences, which in normal times are good and healthy. However, we live in extraordinary and dangerous times and working together, we can, we will and we must come up with the solution.

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