There were few signs of a recession at last week's annual dinner of the Society of Chartered Surveyors in the Burlowhich attracted a packed house of over 900.

The black tie event is easily the largest in the property calendar and this time it was particularly useful in giving surveyors an opportunity to find out precisely how much business has slowed down. It was hardly surprising that society president Sean McCormackused the occasion to press the Government to push ahead with the public capital programme as quickly as possible to safeguard thousands of jobs in the industry.

The real star of the evening was Richard Bruton, Fine Gael's finance spokesman, who gave a skilful assessment of where we have gone wrong and what needs to be done to get us out of the mess. It was a convincing performance and to his credit he did it without putting the boot into the Government. But, then again, maybe he should have given them a drubbing like everyone else.