Rónán Mullen (Independent)

As far as the household charge is concerned, I am on the side of the people who pay and of those who pay on time. I understand that many people are suffering and I believe that many of those who already have paid are people who find it difficult to pay. It would be a tremendous disincentive to law-abiding people for there to be any backsliding about the household charge at this point. I also consider it to be a disservice to the public that Ministers do not really appear to be focused on clarity primarily but to some degree appear to be working out the tensions between the parties in government. It is quite clear that Labour Party Ministers on this occasion have not really been playing for the team in their utterances. It is said that one reason for that is because they felt they were not adequately consulted about the climb-down on the septic tanks issue. That is not the way the Government should be operating and how to fulfil the duty to the public at this time of crisis.

I am very glad to hear Senator Bacik mention the issue of human rights and China in the same breath. I was concerned when watching the RTE report yesterday evening that there was no reference - as far as I am aware - to human rights. I wonder if to some degree our media is being captured by the issue. I know there are economic imperatives but this is an area where the media owes a service to the country and the public by keeping the issue on the agenda so politicians are not allowed to let this issue slide into the background. People must know that Wen Jiabao is the name of a senior person in a very powerful and undemocratic country; it is not a question of when one should lower one's head in deference to a major economic power.

On the subject of clarity in the messages coming from the Government, the Tánaiste yesterday urged support for the fiscal compact treaty, which is fair enough, but he also tried to claim that support for the treaty was an entirely separate matter to our efforts to secure an improvement in the terms of our banking debt. That is unacceptable as they are not separate questions. The Tánaiste has said this is about stability for the euro but Ireland has done more than anybody to stabilise the euro by taking on the national chin the consequences of reckless behaviour by our banks. What happened to this country had nothing to do with its deficit ratios but it was rather a question of what the banks did because of a lack of oversight by the Government. There was no problem with the debt to GDP that led us to this path. The issues are connected and the Government owes it to the public to be braver and say as much. Ireland has acted in good faith and we now expect to be treated in good faith by the partners in Europe.