Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

There is a temptation for politicians and everyone to concentrate on self-interest and pander to anger or the populist approach to advance sectional or self-interest, but that does nothing to address the seriousness of the problem we face. Only yesterday, the economic adviser to the President of the United States of America stated that the recession in the USA is deepening and that he does not see an improvement on the horizon. Unfortunately, much of the comment here, whether from anger, ignorance or whatever, ignores the global nature of the problem and the difficult and serious challenges we face to survive it. In that regard, we must be much more measured in the way we approach the matter. Some days we manage to do so in the House. I compliment the many speakers last week who did it. We have not made a great start today. One example would be the provision of 128 classes for those with special needs. It is a long-standing regulation that when classes fall below a certain level, they are dispensed with and people go into the mainstream. To ameliorate that, a concession was made to set the number at nine. I do not know whether that is the right number at which to apply the criteria but I do not doubt that the State cannot afford to have special classes for one, two or three pupils. We need to be straight with people but that is not happening.

The only bit of hope I felt was on hearing David Begg last night on "Questions & Answers". He was head and shoulders above anyone else. Anybody watching the programme would know from what he said and by his body language that he appreciated the extent of the problems we face, the difficulties we are in and the measured focus we need to find a road through them. I hope that people like him, who feel like that, will be part of the process of finding a solution for the country so that we can look back in a few years' time and say that we got through the huge, unprecedented difficulties we had.