Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes. I go back to the point I made earlier. Traditionally, when economies such as our own have had to deal with global events or the kind of phenomena I outlined a moment ago, the way they do it is by borrowing more. That is a perfectly legitimate policy choice to make. It is perfectly legitimate to borrow more and to respond to difficulty. There are many levels of borrowing that can develop which act as automatic stabilisers that an economy triggers as it goes into difficulty. One of the challenges of that is that normally when a Government needs to do that, it ends up paying a higher rate of interest on the borrowing because rates of interest tend to be the lowest when one needs to borrow the least. The core of the idea is whether it is worth trying to set aside an amount of money to offset the effects in our society of tough external circumstances instead of borrowing the money at interest rates that will be far higher than is currently the case. I am trying to portray the idea simply. I am not running away from the inherent difficulties. The moment we set it up and the moment the money starts being put in, people will ask why we are not using the money to invest in dealing with the difficulties of today. That is the trade-off on which I am interested in hearing the views of members.