Eoghan Harris (Independent)

We, the political class, have no moral authority unless we give leadership. If we find it uncomfortable to pass a civilised picket like that of the Civil Public and Services Union this morning, how will we cope with the much less civilised pickets we will face before this terrible time is over in Ireland? Before Christmas I predicted there would be 500,000 unemployed. I called for a state of emergency, a national Government and national consensus. I repeat all these calls.

I sat in on the debates on the pensions levy in this House and the Dáil yesterday. The debates have an unreal and phony feel; it is like the phony war of 1939 — the Molotov-Ribbentrop plan. The war has not even started. Already the cries are going up that we should not make it worse than it is and that we should think of our international reputation. The mistake we made from the beginning was not telling the truth to the people or stating how bad it is. Nothing frightens the international markets as much as a country lying about its economic condition. What reassures them is an admission that we are in a terrible place and dealing with it.

I deplore the remarks of Senator Leyden on Mr. John Bruton. What we need is the kind of the steel shown by politicians of both main parties, men like Lemass, John Bruton and Paddy Cooney. It is some of this kind of steel we will need before this period is over.

I deplore and condemn An Garda Síochána for marching the streets of Dublin. The gardaí do not just comprise any group in society but are role models for our people. They have no business being on the streets at a difficult time of incipient civil unrest like this. We politicians, the political class, the gardaí and responsible people in society have an obligation to stand firm and stop posturing. We are not Quakers and cannot be friends to all and enemies to none. Far too many politicians in both Houses are behaving as if they were Quakers. We will have to toughen up and be ready to take the harsh measures, and we will have to lead from the front. We should start taking cuts and index them to the continuing cuts because there will be more in the public and private sectors. It is time we toughened up and took as a role model the Chief of Staff of the Irish Defence Forces, Lieutenant Dermot Earley, who told his men some days ago that they would do their duty in the event of public unrest and public striking. We should do the same.