Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

I strongly agree with the remarks of Senators Fitzgerald and O'Toole about the €3 billion we have read about this morning and about which the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, has been in contact with his colleagues. If this is not a budget - perhaps it is not - what is it? We in this House, as do those in the other House, have a clear entitlement to understand and know about the process. The Minister has a duty to come in and update us on the budgetary situation, including the outlook as he sees it. This is vital in order to restore confidence in the economy, which we are all trying to help in our different ways.

As regards the social partners, I also strongly agree with Senator O'Toole's comments. This House could very suitably get engaged with hearing those outside voices and channelling all that thought in a structured way. Following on from that, we all want to see an improvement in credit flow for businesses. NAMA is now advancing finance for some necessary completions in various parts of the country to people with impaired portfolios. How will we ensure that the suppliers in those instances have a protection akin to that they would have if they were dealing with receivers and liquidators? That is very important because of the indebtedness of these people with impaired portfolios. There will need to be control over that because NAMA is advancing millions of euro in different cases for these necessary completions. I am sure that with his businesses background, the Leader will appreciate the importance of having something proper in place.