Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I will cut to the main point in that case. As many speakers have said, our sovereignty is at stake. I accept the need to reduce the deficit but I do not accept the need to reduce it by 3% of GDP by 2014. In my view, such cutbacks in the region of €15 billion are far too much for our economy. I believe we should start nearer home and that Members of the House should show leadership to the people and provide them with the answers they expect. We need to accept the blame for the mess and we need to apologise and be contrite and ask the people to stand with us which, I believe, they might do. We need to bring to book the senior bankers, the regulators and all the other members of the cabal who brought this country to its knees. They should be brought before the courts and charged. The excuse that it takes a long time because it is a complicated area, no longer washes with the public. Any law-abiding citizen has to obey the law and it is clear that laws were flouted and broken. These people have to be dealt with and taught a lesson and this House has to show leadership by doing so. We have to close down these tribunals as they are just a gravy train for certain sectors or society and they are achieving nothing. The courts of the land should be able to deal with the wrongdoings of politicians or others. This House needs to show leadership by introducing emergency legislation to cap the wages of Members of the Oireachtas and of the chief executive officers of semi-State bodies and companies because it is a scandal. Emergency legislation should be introduced to cap the wages of anyone in the country at €200,00 for a period of five years. There are people who have no jobs and have families to provide for. They have no jobs and no hope.

I suggest that senior civil servants also need to come into the real world. These people procrastinated last year after the budget and misled the Minister for Finance about their pay. They undermined the budget strategy for the Government and for which I voted while everyone else took the cuts. We have to get rid of the quangos-----

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