Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

I used to be opposite Senator O'Reilly on the communications and energy portfolio. I disagree with his call for an emergency debate on electricity prices. It would be fair to point out that there have been reductions in recent years. While the point he raised about the PSO is an interesting one, it has been debated in the House previously.

Some have called for a specialisation of the Seanad. Last night, the President paid the Seanad a nice tribute, but she set us the challenge of raising the bar. We need to focus on four areas, three of which are economic in nature and fundamental to how the country evolves in the short, medium and long terms. These areas are banking, the deficit - this is a pseudonym for public overexpenditure - and unemployment. The fourth area is that of Northern Ireland.

Regarding the deficit, I agree with all of Senator Harris's comments, in that there is a conspiracy among left-wing pseudo-socialists in the House and political parties to avoid discussing the significant escalation in the cost of our public service. Last week, I listened as the Committee of Public Accounts queried the most senior people working in our universities and the Higher Education Authority, HEA. I do not think anybody could have listened without being shocked and appalled at the unauthorised payments or the practices on allowances. Highly paid lecturers and professors in our universities receive up to 50% more than their counterparts in the neighbouring island. They lecture for six hours per week and work a maximum of 15 to 20 hours per week. These are part-time jobs. Every day of the week, evidence of this can be seen in the news media and on our televisions, where they are all pontificating about our economic and banking situations, what we should be doing and where we should be going. We heard nothing from them previously.

We need to look at the issue of the public service. It increased by 150,000 people in the decade from 1998 to 2008.