John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

I call on the Leader again to have a debate on the economy at the earliest opportunity and when the Minister returns. No doubt Ireland has experienced the most significant fall in growth in the OECD area, as outlined by the ESRI report. However, Ireland is not the worst performer and that is what has been presented to us today. In fact, the worst performing countries have been those which have gone bust, such as a country that is six months and one letter away from us - Iceland - where the International Monetary Fund, IMF, had to intervene, Estonia, Mexico and Hungary. We have seen much more difficult times in the real world. We have seen debt at 130% of gross domestic product, GDP, interest rates of 20% and 20% unemployment and we got through it all. With a solid faith that what we are doing is right and necessary for the country, I look forward to that debate.

I would welcome a debate on blasphemous libel. Perhaps we could highlight the tyranny of the liberals, in particular Irish liberals who seem to be some of the most intolerant people in the world.