Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The model he deplores was applied, through the fiscal rules, in four other countries. The Irish people, in a referendum, voted for the fiscal rules. It was not unilaterally imposed on the people by a Government. I am glad we have the fiscal rules and I hope they continue, though I would like them to be refined in certain ways that would better suit the Irish experience. If we had fiscal rules back in the days of the Celtic tiger we might not have gone over the cliff and if we had had them in earlier times we might not have had constant swings from boom to bust in the Irish business cycle, in which it is great for two or three years and then it goes bust and 300,000 or 400,000 people lose their jobs. The fiscal rules are preventing that from happening.