Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

Any potential suggestion of disarray or disunity in the Cabinet would be completely unfounded. As I said in the debate on the economy last night, in the context of various reports from an bord snip nua, on the numbers in the public service or anything else, it is important that we all have different points of view. I said it was vitally important that we had a report as stark and with such a severe menu of options of cuts such as those brought forward by McCarthy. He was the appropriate person to do that.

What the Tánaiste said yesterday was that to her, and many of us, there are a number of things in the report that do not make sense. There are many things in it that do not make sense to me, my political aspirations and my views and those of my constituents, but it does not mean it is not necessary for them to happen. The Tánaiste well knows that and that was what was being confirmed by her ministerial colleague, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Lenihan, yesterday evening.

In the context of that, I ask the Leader if he can arrange a schedule of debates between now and the budget on all the different ministerial voting groups, and if there is not time, to pool some of them. One thing is clear - we will have €4 billion in cuts so let us make sure that this House, in a mature way, can have its say and see what we can come forward with. The suggestions do not have to be in the McCarthy report or any report. Maybe we will just come up with them ourselves. One might say under education, one proposes to cut here, there and wherever or under transport, one proposes to have cuts in certain area, because that is what we will have to do and we may as well have our say. As I said last night, toes will be stepped on between now and the first week in December. The onus is on all of us to ensure that the toes that are stepped on are those that are best placed to take the pain and that the most vulnerable in society are protected at all costs.