Dr. Róisín O'Sullivan:

On the point regarding social cohesion, one of the biggest threats to social cohesion is a boom-bust cycle in the economy. When people are plunged into the depths of unemployment and difficulty, this tears apart the fabric of society. A budgetary framework to protect against the boom-bust cycles can help preserve social cohesion. These two things are not necessarily in conflict, although I agree that many of the measures we use in economics, such as GDP, are limited in terms of what they are. We do not pretend that these are perfect measures of human welfare and so on, but they are reasonable proxies of these things.

I regret that Deputy Murphy is no longer here. The framework we are talking about, which we are asking the Government to adhere to, was brought about by the political process. Not only was it voted upon and put into domestic legislation, but it was put to a referendum of the citizens of Ireland, who voted for the fiscal compact that brought about many of the newer elements of this fiscal framework. We are not here to try to undermine the democratic process in any way; rather, we are trying to play our role in monitoring the frameworks that were endorsed by the democratic process that has been put in place.