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

Well, the terms of it, Mr. Cowen, is what I mean. There was ... there is a famous or ... well, a famous Trichet letter of 19 November, but there is an earlier letter from Trichet to Brian Lenihan on 15 October and it's in your core booklet, page ... Vol. 5, page 31-32. But the last paragraph on page 32 is to quote Mr. Trichet, "As I told you, a key element of the monitoring by the Governing Council of Eurosystem exposure to the Irish banking system, and the related decisions the Governing Council may take, will be its assessment of progress in implementing the four-year economic strategythat the Irish Government envisages to announce in early November." And then goes on a little bit and says, "I trust that the four-year strategy will target a fiscal deficit of below 3% in 2014 and a decline in the public debt-to-GDP ratio from [2010/12] onward...as well as a strong structural reform programme", which, to the ordinary person, means strong austerity.