Dan Boyle (Green Party)

There are two immutable rules in politics, one is that the Opposition will invariably seek to portray things as worse than they are and the other is that the Government, however it is composed, will always seek to claim that things are far better than they are. Tonight's debate has contained many such examples. I thank the main Opposition party for its contribution and its provision of five speakers to the debate. Half way through the debate I was concerned that the time allocated would not be used appropriately, which would have been very surprising given the constant requests on the Order of Business for debates of an economic nature. While moving the motion my colleague and I were especially conscious this was an opportunity to address a very serious issue and an opportunity to do so in a way in which we hoped would be consensually based and as collegial as possible. The Government side has contributed seven speakers to the debate, two of whom shared a slot, and the time has been used appropriately.