Mark Dearey (Green Party)

I ask for a debate on economic recovery because there are indications that we can begin to hope that the extreme pain the contraction of the economy has caused to those in the public sector in terms of wages and pensions and to those in the private sector in terms of job losses and pay cuts and the process we all have experienced and suffered looks like it could be coming to a close. I do not wish to get ahead of myself in saying this, but a debate on economic recovery could be timely, given the emergence of the green economy as offering a possible way out of the current situation. The chairman of the UK sustainable commission, Mr. Will Day, is coming to Ireland next week. He has identified Ireland as having significant natural advantages on which we can build, not least of which is the ICT sector which has been developed in the past 20 to 30 years and provides an ideal crossing point or crossover with the smart economy and the green economy as it begins to develop. Ireland is well placed in terms of its natural advantages and indigenous skills base to take advantage of these new opportunities.

I am baffled by the decision of the European Commission to allow former Commissioner McCreevy to take his place on the Ryanair board as a non-executive director. While I acknowledge his right to do so and Ryanair's right to invite him, for the Commission, through its ad hoc ethics committee, to decide it was appropriate and basically leave it up to him to decide not to comment on what was going on in regard to regional airports is bewildering.