Dr. Donal Donovan:

I wish to respond on Deputy Higgins’s remarks about the structural policy supported by the IMF. If one excludes China, probably the only area in the world that has actually performed better in the past ten years than ever before is sub-Saharan Africa. It has registered the highest growth rates since independence 60 years ago. This is remarkable in many ways given the world environment. Whether one likes it or not, many people would argue objectively that the countries in question did introduce structural reform policies, albeit not of the kind that would find favour with Deputy Higgins. The Deputy would probably agree that they did introduce them. The changes had a major impact on the countries' turnaround and impressive growth performance.