Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

It is not a mini-budget that the Government intends to introduce, it is a crisis budget, which is caused by bad management. The new unemployment figures show that 10.4% of our citizens, a record high of 354,000 people, are unemployed this morning. Our fellow citizens have been let down. I ask the Deputy Leader as a matter of urgency to hold an all-party debate on what is best for the country. If the Government really wants co-operation and bipartisanship, let us see it and stop the rhetoric and cnáimhseáil.

Will the Deputy Leader invite the Minister for Social and Family Affairs to the House because it is a disgrace and an abomination that the national carer's strategy has been deferred or postponed? It is a gross insult to the 160,000 people who care for our fellow citizens. Why is the strategy not going ahead? Why not publish the document and discuss and consult on it? What is wrong with that? The excellent work of our carers saves the State €2.1 billion per year.

Will the Deputy Leader hold a debate next week on the promotion of Ireland for St. Patrick's Day? If the Government is serious about the promotion of Ireland and the rekindling of the Celtic nation, the Deputy Leader should invite the leaders of our party, the Independent Group and the Labour Party, and the party leaders in the other House to go across the world with Ministers on behalf of Ireland. If the Government really wants to promote Ireland it should invite Deputies Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore to the White House too and let us collectively promote Ireland. Senator Healy Eames is right that we should focus on job creation and job protection, not the rhetoric of empty vessels from the other side of the House.