Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)

No other country in the European Union has such a small debt and that has allowed the Government to borrow now when it needs to borrow. It is because of the prudent policies followed by the Government in the past ten to 12 years that we have the facility to get out of the trouble in which we find ourselves today. This trouble was not caused wholly by what happened within this country; it is a global problem.

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