Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

I strongly support the call by Senator Fitzgerald for a debate with the Minister for Finance, who I am sure would oblige. The landscape has altered totally and we would like to hear from him regarding the shortfall in Exchequer returns against forecast and the impact this will have across all Departments. The Leader should be able to put that issue to the Minister who, I am sure, would receive it well. As the situation is serious, such a debate would be useful and timely.

Senator O'Toole raised a potentially very serious matter regarding credit unions. We urgently need a level playing pitch in this area and I strongly support what he said. It is time for the same protection to be applied to credit union customers as is given to bank customers.