Eoghan Harris (Independent)

Senator Ó Murchú was correct to say we should not overstate yesterday's demonstration. It was valuable, in that it threw into sharp relief the behaviour of the mass of the Irish people. We should take more pride in the fact that what is probably one of the greatest structural crises we have ever had is being dealt with by the people. Apart from two sets of demonstration - one by the old age pensioners and another by public sector unions - Irish democracy proceeded with steadiness and a lack of hysteria and posturing. We are dealing with the crisis. CAB is about its work, as are the Government and the people.

We were not stampeded into posturing, which is what yesterday was about. Had that small minority of infantile disorders got into Leinster House, what did they propose they would do? Would they have beat up the catering staff or the ushers? What was it but, as Senator Hanafin acutely observed, posturing? This is not the business of serious socialists. Serious socialists have work to do. They must organise, campaign, write pamphlets, agitate, join the Labour Party or a radical party or whatever. They should not posture and mimic the activities of the French and the Greeks. It was going through the motions. If one wants to know the model of a serious socialist, one should study the life of Gordon Brown. He was a serious socialist.