Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The purpose of this budget is to stabilise that deficit and to create the necessary confidence within the country, and externally, that it will manage its affairs, that this Government will take the decisions necessary to sustain public services in the future and that there is no way around that. We have a divided Opposition which, on the one hand, wants no cuts in services or welfare-----

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