Paul Bradford (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader to facilitate, over the next number of weeks, a general discussion on the current economic situation with either the Minister for Finance or the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. Such a debate would cause us to reflect on economic reality. The Government came to power two years ago and held a subsequent Seanad election. In the early days and weeks that followed the establishment of a new Seanad it was admitted and conceded by everybody that there was a grave economic crisis in the country. There was also a willingness and an admission by the main Opposition party, in particular, that it needed to be constructive and recognise the responsibility that it shared in bringing the country to its economic plight while acknowledging that it could only be addressed by everybody working together.

Having listened to Senator MacSharry and some of his colleagues discussing matters such as Bus Éireann and possible changes in the way child care payments are spent, I think a degree of economic amnesia is now setting in. We need to recognise that while progress has been made in turning the economy around, we still live in a very difficult place. We are trying to renegotiate the Croke Park measure to bring about savings of €300 million, so we should not delude ourselves that the Government has wide options or any spare resources. We need to have a substantial debate on the economy in order that we can move away from soundbites and cheap political sloganeering, and reflect on the fact that we are still borrowing hundreds of millions of euro every week to keep our economy ticking over. We have to make the necessary savings and must also carry out the reform measures to which we were all committed two years ago. We need to get back to reality because I feel that, particularly on the Fianna Fáil side of the House, economic amnesia is setting in. Fianna Fáil is trying to pretend that we are back in the boom times when we have a long way to go.