David Norris (Independent)

The other thing that concerns me is the statement of the Minister, Deputy Varadkar. He is a highly intelligent man and he said the referenda were undemocratic. That is an extraordinary statement, but we see this all across Europe. It is a general trend. In the heart of democracy in Greece a Prime Minister was removed because he dared to suggest questioning the people. A referendum is democratic. I understand some of Deputy Varadkar's reasons. He mentioned that, for example, issues such as bin charges, the household charge and other extraneous matters could be brought into the debate. However, he referred to two other issues, namely, the bailout of the banks and the bondholders. Those are relevant issues that it would be proper and correct for citizens to consider during a referendum.

My third concern is the exit from the public service because it is uncontrolled. That is highly dangerous. It seems to me that we are in danger of cutting out the lean and allowing the fat to remain. How many redundant management jobs are going? People in front-line services are going. They are going because of the economic situation in the same way that a number of our colleagues after the previous election saw the opportunity to take the pot and the good pension. I heard the man who was involved in the reform of the National Health Service in Britain say that the way it was being done was absolute chaos. It is like the decentralisation process in reverse. It is uncontrolled, not targeted and it is damaging. For those reasons I call for a major debate on the economy.