Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

I second Senator Frances Fitzgerald's proposal in regard to the amendment to the Order of Business. This is a very serious and sharp economic downturn. I do not think any Member on either side would deny that. Contrary to what was said by the Taoiseach, as quoted by Senator Fitzgerald, we need to worry very much about construction because everything is contracting. The cranes are coming down all the time, many are down already. They have disappeared off the sites, many of which have closed. Sadly, more are closing.

A matter about which everyone in the House will be seriously concerned is the contraction on council housing programmes. We are well aware of the local authority housing lists. This is important infrastructure for our people. We must continue the house building programme at local authority level. We do not want to see it contracting. The county manager in any local authority area will verify that.

Regardless of the meeting tomorrow between the banks and the joint committee, I said two weeks ago that I accept banks have liquidity ratios to meet and must be prudent. The banks and the Government need to speak with the one voice on this but we are going nowhere. If this continues we will not have a recession but stagnation. I support the amendment to the Order of Business because it is important that we have the debate as a matter of urgency, and that we hear the Government's proposals, because it is up to the Government to address the matter.