Joe O'Toole (Independent)

The point made by Senator Fitzgerald has been echoed on a number of occasions. Senator MacSharry and I have asked for a discussion on these issues to enable us to focus on them and obtain information. The Leader promised a monthly debate on the economy, then a weekly debate and on one famous day a bi-weekly debate. We have not had any debate on the economy but we must have one.

I do not necessarily agree with everything Senator Fitzgerald said. Fund managers must take some responsibility, having decided to invest assets in property as opposed to spreading them around, but it does not take from the point made by Senator Fitzgerald that we must deal with these issues. There is not just one crisis - banking; there are also the issues of unemployment and pensions, amiong others, that must be dealt with. This point must be reiterated.

People are beginning to see that social partnership is not an issue of principle but pragmatism. It is where one has people with different points of view, makes them listen to each other and gets them to hammer out some common objectives. For six months I have been saying it is not difficult to agree the common objectives of all parties and find a way through in that direction. This is the time for real leadership. I admire the courage of my colleagues in the trade union movement. Trade union members, like ordinary members of the population, do not have confidence in the Government. They are looking caustically and cynically at what is going on. They do not want another national agreement. Trade union leaders, like the leaders of IBEC and responsible political leaders, believe hard decisions must be taken for the good of the country in order that we can come together in the future. We must have that debate in order that Members of these Houses can buy into these issues, on which the Government must be brave and courageous. The idea that prevention is better than cure does not apply to good leadership. Leadership that manages to prevent disasters never receives credit. If we can prevent unemployment reaching 500,000, we will never receive credit for it, as it will always be pointed out that the unemployment figure was up to 450,000. Hard decisions must be taken, but there will be no positive political gain. However, it must still be done for the sake of local economies, small businesses and the protection of jobs everywhere.

I remind the Leader of my call for a debate on Iran. It is right to support supporters of Mr. Mousavi, but he is not the answer as the regime is wrong. Even with Mr. Mousavi as President, the regime would not be a whole lot better, although as a person he certainly is. The problem is that there is no democratic opposition supported by the western world. Democratic peaceful opposition is provided by the Mujahideen, a group which wants to change the regime and not allow the situation to morph into what happened in Afghanistan. This is likely to happen, even if Mr. Mousavi is the leader. There are issues to be discussed and we must learn from what has happened.