John Crown (Independent)

This son of a Leitrim emigrant who became a taxi driver in New York is honoured to have the opportunity to address the Taoiseach in this House. I ask him to put one big picture item on his agenda for the Presidency, namely, a more fundamental investigation of the real nature of the current economic crisis. It is frequently billed as a purely fiscal or financial crisis involving debt, currency policy or unwise decisions on the euro. We are told that when we fix these problems normality will be restored and we will return to the markets. However, returning the markets means creating more debt. Collectively the western community of nations have become heavily addicted to debt. Increasingly the debt is coming from external sources, including China, the Arab world and other asset rich countries. When we say we want to return to the normalcy of the bond markets, we are like a group of poor families who want to move from the normality of taking our food from St. Vincent de Paul and instead take it from big Vinny, the debt collector down the street. It is important that we reform our economies in such a way that we do not put ourselves in debt to others and, more important, do not place our children and grandchildren in further debt.

It is not long ago that western countries were wholly independent in food, exported energy and made nearly all the world's manufactured goods. That has dramatically changed and even economic powerhouses to which our destiny is linked, such as the United States, have seen their manufacturing sectors become devastated. It is difficult to find an American made item in a Walmart store and the products in many shops in Europe are produced outside the EU. It is no coincidence that the last country which has a strong and thriving economy is Germany. I ask the Taoiseach to put protecting and developing industry at the top of his agenda.

On a personal level, I wish to raise with him a radical idea that has been proposed in this House and at the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, namely, that Ireland set the goal of banning all commerce in tobacco products by 2030.