Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I thank everybody for their contributions to the debate, passionate and heartfelt as they were. It is important to set out the context for this debate and the budgetary pressures we are under. We cannot ignore the reality that we are relying on funding being provided through the EU and IMF programme for the provision of our day-to-day public services. Nobody else will lend us the money we require to keep our public services on track and at this point, most unfortunately, taxpayers from other EU countries are reaching into their pockets to help us pay the salaries of teachers and special needs assistants across our school system.

There was mention earlier of political responsibility and a bipartisan approach. That would require all of us to be brutally honest about the difficulties in which we find ourselves. To continuously suggest, as the Opposition has done this evening, that there are less unsavoury options to be availed of is not honest and is, conversely, very dishonest.