Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

It is a pity that the Government is all over the place on what will happen in the budget. The Government is sending out conflicting signals to different interest groups and is partly responsible for the fall in bank shares today, together with the ordering of the NAMA legislation. It is a huge problem and for that reason I support Senator Fitzgerald's call for a debate on the economy and the budget. In that debate, we must examine the call from the trade union movement that the top earners in society should pay proportionately in the forthcoming budget.

The wealth that accumulated in the Celtic tiger years has not evaporated and will have to be tackled as well. We should have a wide-ranging debate soon on the budget and fiscal policy. I would like to see a debate on three areas that are impacting on the entire Border region, including my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan. First, 250,000 people are crossing the Border to shop in the North. We need adjustments in the VAT rate and price controls because the situation is decimating Border towns. It is understandable that people are doing that in the current circumstances, but we must address the matter.

Second, the fact that Protestant schools are being attacked and closed has huge implications in my area. Poorer Protestants from small farms etc. were boarding in Protestant boarding schools in the provincial towns and they were not privileged or elitist. They wanted, and have the right, given the nature of things, to have their ethos protected in schooling, and I want the Leader to address that.

Courts are being closed down in local towns in my constituency and being transferred to central towns. There is no saving from this because witnesses, as well as the free legal aid people, the gardaí etc., still have to be taken by taxis to the central court. In addition we are taking gardaí out of the local towns and causing a security issue during court sittings. This is a very serious matter and I ask the Leader to bring that to the attention of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.