Professor Patrick Honohan:

I did not intend to convey ridicule, just a criticism of it. I hope I am not closed to thinking of many different courses of action, even ones that are far away from what is going on, and considering them all. We are in a bad position. I think that is absolutely right. Unemployment is shockingly high and the prospects the Deputy describes are weak. It gets us back from the situation of having no access to financing, but it does not get us back to a strong and healthy economy as quickly.

Remember the crisis we were in in the 1980s. We did come back from it and the foundation for coming back was building confidence - the confidence of our creditors and domestic confidence, which is not strong now. It did bounce back quickly. People are saying that the situation is not as favourable now but it is possible to do better than the forecast. As Deputy Mathews is always telling us, forecasts are subject to a wide variation and uncertainties. Sometimes things work out better, but so far they have worked out worse than we expected.