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

Anyway, that is the solution and we will come back to it.

I am curious about a comment made by Mr. Brown in the Sunday Independent in August. He was asked by the newspaper if he believed it was time for the Government to row back on austerity. He stated:

It's important the government continues with the programme they've agreed with the Troika. Clearly very good progress has been made.

I wonder if Mr. Brown is aware of the great contradiction in his view. He is urging the Government to proceed with a vicious programme of austerity that is taking so much from the pockets of ordinary people and making it far more difficult for them to pay their mortgages on a monthly basis and thus exacerbating the financial problems of some of the banks but mainly of themselves. Does Mr. Brown not see a great contradictory position in that?