David Norris (Independent)

I do not intend to take any excursions into Standard & Poor's given I exercised myself quite freely on that subject on the Order of Business. Although I agree with the points made by Senator Hanafin I will concentrate this evening on issues I believe are more relevant.

I am disappointed the Opposition and the Government were not able to put forward a motion with which they could agree, given that they appear to agree on a lot. There has been a fair amount of point scoring during the debate. The Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, gleefully engaged in this when he said that while he welcomes the support of Fine Gael, the good ideas were Government ideas and that others had not been properly costed. That is the state we are at. Obviously, we have not comprehended the nature of the crisis and the two principal parties are not prepared to get behind ideas rather than partisan interests, which is a pity. There is a great deal of sentiment, coincidentally, in the area of green energy in particular.

This afternoon I met a man who was wearing an interesting pin in his collar, which I thought was an aeroplane. I asked him what the aeroplane represented and he told me it was not an aeroplane but a symbol for wind energy. The man concerned is a Minister's adviser. Obviously, this matter is being taken seriously. A couple of weeks ago, I was the guest of a friend of a neighbour, Mr. Clarke, at Westbrook Motors and was permitted to drive the new Mitsubishi all electric car, which costs €1 million. I drove the car around Merrion Square.