Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I am glad we have an opportunity to discuss the economy later. However, I would like to refer to the issue of public sector bashing, which is giving pleasure to some of the people who got us into this trouble. IBEC was first in the queue. Has the media forgotten that the six largest members of IBEC - our large banks and financial institutions - got us into this mess? IBEC and the media seem to have forgotten all about that. IBEC, sitting atop a €60 billion brass neck, is now talking down to the rest of us about how we should do our business and about how something in which they had no hand, act or part should be taken out on teachers, nurses, postmen, firefighters and civil servants. If health and education services could be supplied at a cheaper rate than is the case currently, Ryanair schools and clinics would pop up all over the country. We should realise that. The CPSU is the largest public sector union and the average pay of its members is €29,000 a year. I do not have a problem with the Government addressing the public sector but it better do so in a refined and understanding fashion, otherwise people will be unable to stand back and take it.

I generally support NAMA but it will lead to an extraordinary imbalance in the sense that it will not deal with mortgage holders and others. We cannot surely countenance a scenario long term where, on the one hand, most of us will have to work hard to keep the necessary banking arrangements going in the economy while, on the other, supporting those who will foreclose on decent people who through no fault of their own can no longer meet their mortgage repayments even though this was caused in the main by the same people who will take their property. That is unacceptable. The matter is dealt with in other countries. In France, for example, if the mortgagee is genuinely under too much pressure, the mortgage period is lengthened or other changes can be taken into consideration.

I have listened today to farmers and the problems of small businesses. It may well be that the Government will have to look again at the issue of price controls. Fair play to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Brendan Smith, for what he said, but he has been saying it for six months. What is he doing about the matter? There is no point in saying what Tesco and others should be doing. If they are not doing it, we should be taking action to make sure they do.