Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

-----and all of this is true.

There is a real and extant emergency and the terms of this are in the preamble and recital to the Bill. It sets out the issues, some of which are that we are still availing of a financial assistance programme. It is my expectation as well as my hope that we will shortly be exiting the financial assistance programme. I do not envisage that these are long-term requirements. The entire financial emergency measures in the public interest architecture is by definition in response to a financial emergency which, with the resilience and forbearance of the Irish people and the determination of both parties in government, we will map our way out of in a decent and narrow horizon.

I thank Senator Norris for his kind remarks about my concluding comments at the end of Second Stage. I was responding to an attack on my party and I should have stated that I honestly believe what was done to put our country back on track could not have been done without the coming together of the two largest parties in the State at that important critical juncture in history, because of the external pressures. Much lesser economic pressures existed at other times when there was a tiny majority, particularly in the other House, and it was very difficult to do what was necessary. In a piece I wrote recently for one of the national newspapers I stated that in years to come, how Ireland got out of the crisis will be written up as importantly as how we got into it, and it will be a legacy not only of the two parties in government but also of the forbearance of the Irish people, who endured when others took to the streets elsewhere.

I will not accept these amendments. This is the fabric that is required. The powers to make these alterations are required to make the savings which are essential to contribute to our economic recovery.