Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

I support the comments made by previous speakers on the rights of children. Yesterday I also spoke about our vulnerable elderly. Today I want to highlight the problems of those aged between 25 and 40 who are exposed to serious financial and emotional pressures. They bought houses at the peak of the property market and in many cases have young children who are attending school or college. Furthermore, they are now falling victim to redundancies. As parliamentarians, we need to take account of this age group.

Over the past several days we received mixed messages from Ministers with regard to how the Government intends to address the economic crisis. A national programme for recovery was introduced in 1987 and the Government of the day engaged with the social partners and communities. Such a programme is once again needed. If we are to find a roadmap to recovery, we need to be honest with the people and put our cards on the table. Last week's forum of leading business people with Irish connections was positive in terms of proposing solutions. Such an approach could also be tried at local and regional levels. Universities, institutes of technology and regional business leaders could get together with communities to identify problems and propose solutions locally. That is the only way we can be inventive or offer new hope.

This morning Senator Fitzgerald proposed a motion on the NRA. Last year I raised my concerns about the lack of service stations on our national primary routes. Over the summer, hundreds of miles of national roads were designated motorways with a click of the fingers. No regard was paid to strict international standards on driver fatigue, which is one of the most unsafe practices in the developed world. Ireland has no service stations and only two are proposed. That is a disgrace and I call for a debate on our national roads network and accountability from the NRA.