Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

I support the calls for a debate on the terrible issues the country is facing. I understand that senior Ministers are not available when they are in the Dáil. I agree with Senators O'Malley and Hanafin — perhaps we should go to the other House to listen to what is said. Like everybody else, I heard at 6.30 a.m. this morning that the talks had failed. I almost had a seizure. We were all hanging on every last word in the hope that the talks would succeed. It is regrettable. Everybody was amazed and saddened that a better result was not achieved this morning. It annoys me, of course, to hear Opposition Senators saying the Taoiseach did nothing. I listened to "Morning Ireland" from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. this morning. Everyone who spoke on the programme who had been involved in the talks made it clear that the Taoiseach and others did great work to move forward the talks. I commend both sides — the Government and the people to whom the Government was talking — for working tirelessly to try to achieve a positive result. It has been suggested that the Government was wrong to introduce the pensions issue at such a late hour. The Government has been criticised for that. I am a novice — I do not know what goes on at talks of this nature — but I understand from people who are in the know on these matters that the talks in question were organised no differently from similar talks that took place in different times. I am glad that the social framework is still in place and that the unions are still willing to talk, particularly on other issues. It is regrettable that the current talks have fallen on this issue.

As Senator O'Malley said, Ireland's international reputation is being watched closely. Ireland's credit rating is hanging in the balance. When we are in this House and in the Lower Chamber, we tend to be very parochial. It would do none of us any harm to open our eyes and widen our horizons for the sake of the generations to come. Just because we are already on the ladder does not mean we should pull up that ladder after us.

I commend the Taoiseach and the others who worked hard for the past week to secure a solution. That solution is not yet achieved but they continue to work it out. It is stiff and cheap of the Opposition to seek to score political points particularly when it is not offering any alternatives.