Mr. Ian Talbot:

First, I do not think we want to undermine or not recognise the huge achievements that have been made. We are around this table arguing about whether it is the last €200 million or €2 billion or somewhere in between. Four years ago we were sitting around this table and we were discussing €15 billion. We have done that through a combination of tremendously hard work by a lot of people and the citizenship of this country got on with it, much to their collective credit.

We have broadened the tax base. We have increased many taxes that have been reduced in the good years. In 1991 the top rate of tax was 54% and we got it down to 40% and now it has gone up to 52%. We have brought in property tax and water charges. The business community has supported the need to broaden the tax base and to take the pressure off. We are at the point now where to keep things moving we can tweak the system a little. We must recognise as well that we have done this at a time when some of our major markets were in disarray. The euro was constantly in crisis and eurozone inflation is being kept below 2%. Currently it is 0.5%. The United States has been struggling and we have had major credit issues. We sometimes think the difficulty SMEs have with borrowing is unique to Ireland but if one picks up any newspaper in almost any developed country in the world one will find issues about lending to SMEs, which reflect a tightening of credit globally. Many of our issues are global ones.

We have done a fantastic job. Times will improve in Ireland. We will deserve them as we will have worked hard for them. At that time we need to stand back and ask what other good ideas we should have as a society to continue to improve and to make the system more equitable, and to do it at a time when we have the ability and capability to do it. We should be much more open next time. The last time we just gave the money away as it flooded in. The next time we need to make proper structural change to suit the type of society we want to be. That is a big statement. I do not know exactly what type of society we want to be. I do not think we ever want to be Scandinavian but we should make choices and do it when we have some breathing space. At the moment our collective achievement in sitting around this table arguing over whether it is €2 billion or nothing is fantastic and let us not take away from that achievement by everyone.