Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

I join Senator Ross in asking for a debate on the impending banking appointment in AIB. We seem to have learned nothing and it is symptomatic of the Government's malaise. The appointment of an insider sends a wrong signal to ordinary people that the banking system has learned nothing and that it is business as usual. If this is what the Government wants to happen, it should go ahead and make the appointment. However, if it is serious about reform, we should have a real debate on the matter.

I join Senator Fitzgerald in raising the issue of public sector reform. If the Taoiseach is in the driving seat, why have we not seen public sector reform to date? It is a little like "Driving Miss Daisy" in that he is giving orders from the back seat and telling people what to do when he should be driving reform, but he is not doing so. I note this morning the silence of the Green Party which, when in opposition seven years ago and recently before entering government, was calling for real reform. Suddenly it has become silent.

Will the Leader invite the Minister for Social and Family Affairs to the House? This morning in the Irish Examiner and other newspapers we read that 1 million people are facing Christmas without the Christmas bonus. They are really feeling the pinch of the recession. They did not have bank shares, invest in mad property developments or have a relationship with developers or bankers. These are the ordinary plain people of Cork, Westmeath, Kerry and elsewhere and are now suddenly on the edge, faced with a choice as to what to buy for Christmas or every week. They ask whether they should buy groceries or pay off part of the gas bill. The Green Party wants to introduce a carbon tax at a time when fuel prices are escalating.