Eoghan Harris (Independent)

It was good to hear such consensus in the House in the matter of pensions. The Taoiseach is on record as saying he believes in Cabinet Government. That is a good thing, because there is far too much of the presidential style in western European politics, and it is good to have Cabinet Government. This presupposes, however, that the Ministers appointed do not suffer from "political Asperger's" and do not run off the reservation, for example, when asked whether they will touch old age pensions and replying they would not rule this out. That is political insanity, apart from the intrinsic badness of it.

The Minister should be called to account in both Houses of the Oireachtas and say he is very sorry for having said that. It was the equivalent of turning up at some old person's house at night, wearing a balaclava, and saying he would like to have a chat about old age pensions. I am glad that every side of the House is agreed this is wrong. If pensions are to be touched, to do it honourable, as Senator Twomey said, and have any public credibility, it is necessary to start with politicians and then go on to all the retired civil servants who now earn more because of benchmarking than when they were actually working. Then it is a question of looking at people who use Ireland as a tax haven. However, one does not make a broad lunatic statement to the effect that one is going to look at old age pensions, and terrorise every member of the population who is elderly and fragile.

This arises from the constant hunting around by civil servants for vulnerable or new sections to make up the deficit. It is time we were adults. We have to deal with the deficit. The most progressive, honourable and fair way to do this is through income tax. There should be income tax increases to deal with the deficit, property taxes, rates and progressive taxation and an end to the targeting of vulnerable sections of the population.