Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

Many of those who have contributed this morning seem to feel they were the first to highlight the current crisis. Unfortunately, that is not the case. When both I and Senator Boyle were Members of the Lower House, numerous debates were held during our five years there on the issue of where the country was going wrong. However, the Government chose to ignore the issue. Senator Boyle has now joined the Government and is apologetic on its behalf. Therefore, he should stop acting as if he was the guardian of the truth over the years.

I would like a debate in the House on the public sector deal proposed by Government and the public sector unions. Over the past number of years, many promises have been made with regard to reform of the public service under benchmarking reforms. There has been some successful reform in the sector, but there has also been botched reform, specifically within the health services. There are also areas where there has been no reform whatsoever. If the latest agreement with the public sector unions is to have any credibility, the issue must be discussed in both Houses of the Oireachtas in order that we can see what level of reform is planned.

Before we move on to the debate on the banking crisis, I would like to remind the Government parties, that the public is as mad as hell and no amount of mocking it or taking it for granted will save the sorry backsides of either Fianna Fáil or the Green Party this time around.