Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

-----how to work consensus politics in this country if it is necessary.

I would not take too much from what the Department of Finance is saying. It is the same Department that has been advising the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, for the past two years on his banking policy, which is turning out to be more like a Monty Python film than high finance. Two years ago the Minister told us it was going to cost us nothing to bail out the banks, then it was going to be €4.5 billion and now it is turning out to be €50 billion. How can one believe that you can trust somebody within the Department if that is where he is getting his advice from?

We need a new Government because the people are angry with what the guys opposite have done. This is not a four-year county development plan, as Senator MacSharry might like to point out. This is about how the Government has eviscerated the Irish economy, destroyed people's lives and put 450,000 out of work. That is what this debate is about. That is why the guys opposite need to walk off the pitch and then support the new Government in trying to get this country back on level pegging again in the next number of years.