Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I share Senator Healy Eames's concern for the protection of the family home. The expert group on mortgage arrears and personal debt, chaired by Mr. Hugh Cooney, is engaged in its final deliberations on the matter and I hope its recommendations will be available in the coming weeks. Given that the group was established by Members more than two years ago, I hope its final report will adequately address the issue of protecting the family home. While I do not suggest we should pay bills for people, we should respect their dignity, give them time and provide innovative ways to allow them to deal with the problems they face in the knowledge that they will not lose their homes.

I also welcome today's historic meeting between the party leaders. The purpose of the meeting is not to seek national government or agreement on all issues but to try to establish consensus on the length and breadth of the difficulties facing us and decide on the basic, fundamental remedies required, while reserving the right to disagree on a number of the tangible measures that will be taken. In that regard, I appeal again to the Leader to arrange debates on taxation, social welfare, health and education in the coming weeks. These are the four areas to which most expenditure is allocated and in which savings will clearly have to be made. I challenge Senators to participate in these debates without engaging in a blame game, focusing on the past or arguing about who blew the benefits of the boom and other perceptions. We should focus solely on producing ideas on where savings can be made. This approach would not absolve anyone from the blame they are perceived to have for things done poorly in the past. It challenges us instead to propose the tangible measures for which we yearn in order that the House will be taken seriously and to ensure our innovative ideas form part of public policy. I ask the Leader to make arrangements to hold the four debates I seek in the coming weeks. I challenge Senators to produce real solutions, ideas and savings in an open-minded and determined manner, rather than engaging in the rhetoric to which we have all become accustomed in recent years.