SEANAD REPORT:A FINE Gael Senator warned that if the political parties did not work together to tackle the challenges facing the nation, Ireland would not be an independent republic in 2016, but a province of the International Monetary Fund.

Consensus was the language of the courageous. Opposition to it was, in his view, old politics, which we could no longer afford in this country, said Paul Bradford.

On a similar theme, party colleague Paschal Donohoe said all Opposition parties had a responsibility to publish detailed plans in relation to the delivery of a 3 per cent borrowing rate by 2014. He hoped and believed that his party would meet that responsibility.

Mr Bradford repeated his recent call for a political truce to enable the emergence of an economic consensus so that a budget could be put through and pave the way for economic recovery.

He did not want the current, or any government, to be dependent on the beck and whim of a few maverick TDs for whom constituency and not country came first.

His attendance at a recent meeting of the North-South Parliamentary Forum had reinforced for him the positive outcome that could be achieved through parties of every hue – “some of whom fired shots at each other” – working together in the common good. The members of the Dáil and Seanad had to decide now whether they wanted to put party politics before country. “I know what the public wants us to do, and I hope we’re up to the challenge.”

Mr Donohoe said there was a need for agreement by the parties that our sovereignty was under threat and that we could not afford to borrow on the financial markets at present. He would urge the Government to adopt a constructive approach to suggestions from Opposition parties. “If there is a good idea, for the sake of the country take it on board and for the sake of our political system, acknowledge it in the interest of all of us. That will create a new environment, which is vital for our country to be secure.”

There was applause from the public gallery when Eoghan Harris (Ind) said politicians had no right to seek reductions in public expenditure unless the political class was prepared to take a 20 per cent hit.

The public sector, which had a €108 billion pensions liability, was the obvious area in which savings in public expenditure should be made.