Eoghan Harris (Independent)

Like everyone else in Ireland, I care for my country, as do my colleagues in the Seanad. In the closing days of this Seanad we should reflect on the crisis in Irish politics, which is the lack of respect for politics and politicians. Our primary task should not be to score points against each other within the political system. All politicians have a duty of care to the Irish people and to get people to respect politics once more, because politics has never been so disrespected in modern Ireland.

Part of respecting politics is to understand the nature of the crisis. Conventional wisdom is that it is an economic crisis. It is that, but we have been through economic crises since the 1920s and dealt with them. The problem with this crisis is that there is a crisis of authority as well - a crisis of politics itself and of leadership. That is the reason I proposed, in my column in the Sunday Independent last Sunday, a reverse Tallaght strategy for Fianna Fáil - that in Opposition it would support the incoming Government. The broad parameters of the budget are agreed and what people are fighting about here is the small change. It is like arguing about the composition of a Christmas pudding, where the raisins should go or whether there should be less flour and so forth. The point is that all political parties in these Houses are committed to the broad parameters of the budget and it behoves Fianna Fáil to support the incoming Government. Otherwise, we will be at the mercy of the anarchist, independent and messy forces in this society.

People crave stable government from the centre for a few years to allow them to get their heads and their act together. I appeal once more to the parties about this. I am glad the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Micheál Martin, picked up my reverse Tallaght strategy on "The Frontline" programme and that the Taoiseach endorsed it this morning. Fine Gael and the Labour Party should consider their duty of care to the other side and their duty to give Fianna Fáil a soft landing. They should say: "Yes, we accept that we all have a duty of care and that we are all within the broad parameters of this budget together. We have a duty to create a centre of authority in Irish politics."

That duty devolves on the Labour Party as much as others. I was interested to see that Deputy Seán Sherlock believed the budget should be supported. That marked the intelligence and cop-on for which his family has always been noted. All political parties in this House should consider whether it would not be wiser of them to gather around and protect the broad parameters of this budget and of public policy. I know, and they know in their hearts, that is what the Irish people want them to do.