Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

-----in addition to the reforms we have introduced and which have been implemented here in the House by way of statutory changes, etc., have provided the ability to deal with that issue in that way. This represents about 10% of the debt repayment that will be involved next year. However, that is not the only source of our problem. The real source of our problem, with which we have been contending for some time, has been the hole in the public finances as a result of reduced revenues. There is a need to bring expenditure back progressively over time, although not in a Draconian way in the first instance, albeit I recognise that any change in expenditure levels can bring its own hardships and difficulties. This has been the Government's strategy. The Government has moved from contraction measures to stabilisation and now we have to find growth. One of the difficulties in the significant budgetary correction over the next four years will be how to find this balance between budgetary correction and the need to maintain growth in the economy. This is an issue we have to further discuss and we have to examine the data.

I remind the Deputy that the data being provided is from a series of forecasts which are precisely that, using one's best judgment in the best circumstances to try to predict what way things will go in the future. The past two or three years have seen a degree of turbulence and change which has been unprecedented in the past 70 years.

See this speech in context