Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

-----and the Opposition can bring forward proposals which the Department of Finance will cost. This has never happened before. I, for one, hope and I am confident that this process will not be superficial because, as I said last week and Senator Bradford and many other Members said in the past few days, we must have some input to what will clearly be an extremely difficult and painful process. It is essential that the public has a sense of public ownership of the policy that will be adopted, or the country will be in serious trouble. If Members on the other side of the House believe the process is superficial and that the proposals they hve brought have not received a good hearing, let us debate the matter rather than participating in a constant Punch and Judy show in which people say one should have done something else, that their manifesto and bicycle are better and all that kind of rubbish which, unfortunately, is strangling the country.