Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I call on the Leader to provide time for a debate on the euro. I spent the past two days in Europe, where people are worried. Ireland is worried and the world is worried. Fierce decisions face our leaders. They need incredible courage. We have been stumbling since 2008. The European Central Bank's commitment to a co-ordinated approach with other central banks is welcome. However, more certainty is needed. Without that certainty, the markets will go crazy. There is too much instability around.

At a local level, questions such as what are our options if the euro collapses and will people's savings be worthless are being asked. I wish our Taoiseach and Minister for Finance well next week. It would be great if we had a debate which adopted a responsible approach in terms of the situation we are in. I do not know if we have any other options. We need to face up to where we are at and to have that debate.

As we face into next week's budget, I was touched by calls from Irish people wanting to play their part, including volunteers and old age pensioners willing to take a €5 per week cut in their pensions and others offering to give up their child benefit. Perhaps the Minister for Finance should consider an element of volunteerism in the budget which would allow people to volunteer cuts which they can afford. There is such goodwill in Irish people. An addendum to that would be that if people's situations worsened, it would be possible to reverse such cuts. It is worth looking at this proposal in light of the tough decisions which the Government must make in finding €3.8 billion in cuts next week.