Alex White (Labour)

——or at least a harbinger of what is to come. It certainly sets the mood for what we have been told to expect. We will see. I understand it is planned to have a debate on the budget in this House tomorrow. I hope that in the coming days and weeks, not just in one debate, we do not just see the budget as a bookkeeping measure to balance the books. I hope the Minister also does not see it as such. The Government needs to do that in the initial sense and ensure what it proposes to spend is matched by the income and funds it has. It presents a much bigger opportunity to those in these Houses to consider what our priorities should be in the present economic climate. I really hope this House can have that kind of wider debate in coming days and months.

Other parliaments' upper houses have shown that they can contribute to a very considerable extent to that kind of wider debate and really scrutinise their governments. In that context, I am delighted with last night's decision by the House of Lords to reject the British Government's proposal to introduce an extension to the period during which suspects may be held to 42 days. That was an independent move and I hope we, as Members of this House and Parliament, can show our independence in how we approach the debate on the budget in the coming months.

In an article in today's The Irish Times, Fintan O'Toole makes the compelling point that one can plan to spend less in the context of economic difficulties and cutbacks and, in some circumstances, achieve more. The example he cites is child care, an issue the House has debated and should revisit. The reasonable and costed proposals of the National Economic and Social Forum, which were supported by my party, set out a universal system of early child care, which would cost less than the combination of funds currently dedicated to child care through the early child care supplement and the subvention scheme. Senator Mary White and others have raised this issue in the past. We could be innovative and adopt a child care system that would require less investment while achieving something real and substantial for our children. We need to bring such thinking to bear on the budget in the coming days. I hope we will do that and discharge our responsibility as a Parliament in doing so.

I join with Senator Cummins in asking the Leader to confirm in respect of the banking crisis the scheme and regulations to be introduced. The Minister has promised the scheme will be laid before the Houses. Consensus among economic commentators has increased in recent days that the question of capitalisation of banks cannot be avoided in the context of Irish banks because it is being addressed internationally. Will that form part of the scheme because it does not seem it could as currently indicated? When will we have the debate on the scheme?