Feargal Quinn (Independent)

There is an onus on all of us in the House to act in the best interests of the State because there is a danger we could talk ourselves into bigger problems. I spoke to people who were making a television programme recently for a continental station. They had visited a working men's club in Dublin and then interviewed some students. They sent the package to the Continent only for it be sent back because it was not negative enough. The station wanted the report to be more negative. Instead of a man saying, "Yes, we can get out of this," the producers were asked if they could get him to look at a shop window and say, "We will not have enough food for Christmas," because that is the story the media want. It may well be that they are explaining to their citizens why they are giving money to Ireland and they want to paint an even worse picture.

There is an onus on us to be realistic but also to be optimistic. We have experienced problems previously. In 1987 we had a much larger debt and greater problems, yet we were able to get out of them quickly because we began to believe in ourselves. Let us make sure we recognise our opportunities. Ireland is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. It is the second largest exporter in Europe. Other countries ran into similar problems, for example, Finland in 1991 and Latvia two years ago. They took tough medicine. When one is ill, one takes tough medicine. It is not pleasant, but one can get over problems quickly if one manages to recognise one has the solution in one's own hands. To a large extent, it has been taken out of our hands, but we can solve our problems. Let us make sure we do not hand them over to those who have solutions other than the democratic solution for which we have responsibility.