Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

It is not a matter of emotional gratification. It is a matter of hard economic reality. Taking this level of resources from the Irish economy and from the pockets of the Irish people is torpedoing the domestic economy yet the Governor, in his speech, lauds the austerity policy and the Government for continuing to implement it. All the statistics point to an ongoing contraction in the domestic economy which will be even worse in 2013 as a result of the budget. I do not have time to go through the economic indicators, but employment figures, etc., tell their own tale. It is not, as the Governor says, an emotional issue. It is a question of hard economic reality.