As I said last Friday, Ireland's media is wallowing in self-pity and trying to apportion blame. I think that, by now, we all know where the blame lies - but nothing great in life was ever achieved by playing the blame game.

It's time to move on, to stop wallowing and to start taking real action. However, real action can only be taken with a clear and present mind. So a little clarity and presence is what is required. Those qualities will not be found amongst Ireland's ruling elite - they have too much self-interest on their minds. Ordinary citizens are the only people that will bring about the kind of quantum change that is now required.

But how do normal people pull themselves together to do the right thing? First of all, people now need to focus on what needs to be done to get things right. The time for focusing on all that has gone wrong is past. Secondly, ordinary people need to know where their priorities lie - I recently read an article in The Irish Times that suggested that Ireland needs to return to its core community-based values - the time for the almost exclusive focus on money is long gone too.

Who will stand up for the ordinary Irish citizen? Because it is only ordinary people who, in the right frame of mind, can achieve the extra-ordinary...