Joe O'Toole (Independent)

As we approach the budget and there is a focus on the involvement of Independent Members in the other House, in particular, I wish to note the extraordinary imbalance in the commentary. When Ministers vie with each other to direct money from the national lottery to their constituencies, or to secure school buildings or decentralised offices for their constituencies, they are considered to be looking after their constituents. When Independent Members try to do the same, they are considered to be holding the country to ransom. None of the Independent Members I have seen has held the country to ransom, all they have done is try to secure some help for their constituencies, the same as they would if they were members of Government parties and that should be remembered. There is a bias against Independent Members in such commentary.

We sat all night one night on the question of the bank guarantee. We went through every aspect of it and as asked every question. I remember, in particular, Senator Alex White asking the Minister to take us through step by step what happened on that night, how they came to certain conclusions and what the banks were saying. This was presented as an urgent priority that was brought to the Government at very short notice and on which they had to make quick decisions. The leader of the Green Party, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, however, said at the weekend that the Cabinet discussed this at a meeting on Sunday. If that is the case, this House, the Dáil and the people of Ireland have been seriously misled. We were never given any indication of this extraordinarily serious matter. Everyone of us felt the Government was under pressure - I supported the Government in its decision on the facts given to me at the time - but every single Member of the Oireachtas, apart from the Government it would appear, was led to believe this came upon the Cabinet on the Monday, the night they met before bringing the guarantee before the Houses. This House is entitled to some explanation of this.

It is unfortunate that for technical reasons we could not deal with the Croke Park agreement this week, although the Leader assures me we will discuss it next week. At the start of this crisis, one of the first questions asked in the House was why there were no economists in the Department of Finance. The answer is simple: we could not afford to pay them. We will now, once again, be reducing all salaries in the public sector. To use a blunt instrument such as this is not the way we should do our business. We are walking into the same mistakes we made before. When the boss of Bord Gáis was asked yesterday morning how he would deal with the reduction in his salary, his answer was simple: he said he would go straight back to the private sector. The House should think about that.