Eoghan Harris (Independent)

I support Senator O'Toole's remarks in support of the call by the Green Party for consensus. Like him, I deplore the Taoiseach's tepid response and that of the other parties. Professor Rónán Fanning suggested the appropriate response to our structural crisis, the greatest crisis the State has ever faced, would be to establish a cross-party forum along the lines of the New Ireland Forum of 1983-84. The merits of that idea are beyond argument. As we face the budget, the facts of life are that Minister for Finance has three choices: he can attack the productive private sector that generates all wealth and growth; he can attack the welfare class which is down and out, or he can look at the public sector, of which the pension liability alone stands at €108 billion, three times the cost of the bank guarantee. There are civil servants in receipt of a pension of €155,000, while the Taoiseach and Ministers are paid far above European norms. That is why we need a cross-party forum of some kind to take hard measures in the public sector, the elephant in the room. Common sense dictates we should not come down hard on the productive private sector. Common compassion dictates we should not come down hard on the welfare sector.