Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the three days that have been set aside for the NAMA debate next week. I am sure Members will sit late into the night to ensure a full airing of all the amendments proposed. I also welcome the proposed break in order that Members can prepare their thoughts for it. The Opposition parties, including Fine Gael, the Labour Party and others, can work on their amendments, which Members on this side of the House look forward to seeing. They should be published as soon as they are available in order that Members can evolve their own thoughts on them to have a more full and inclusive debate.

I agree with Senator O'Toole's point that people require certainty as they look to the future. When there is more certainty it will lead to more confidence and in that context, I welcome the European Union's outlook in respect of future economic performance. On a related point, I wish to repeat a request I made in recent weeks that between now and the budget, time should be set aside on a weekly or daily basis to enable Members to come up with suggestions on where cuts should be made, rather than on where money should be spent. I acknowledge that all Members and all trade unions know and have agreed that cuts must be made. Moreover, far from thinking the trade union movement and workers' representatives are lunatics, they are anything but that. They constitute an important and vital aspect of these negotiations and I welcome and support their entitlement to protest if they so wish.

However, Members also must play their part and I believe they should encourage the social partnership process because this is the model, albeit one adjusted from that which obtained from 1987 to the present, which will help to lead us through this crisis. I wish the union leaders well, together with the Cabinet and senior Government representatives, as they continue through negotiations and considerations to ascertain how they can best put together the budgetary process to deal with these crisis. However, as Members of this House also should play their part, a minimum of a couple of hours per week over the next couple of weeks should be made available to all Members to enable them to consider from where, under the various ministerial Votes such as education and agriculture, savings could come.