Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not see any red lights up there, but I want to make a couple of comments myself. I also want to bring in Dr. Canelli. I am waiting to see if we will be required to take a break and come back.

I have always had to apologise to economists following the financial crash. The Government of the day got various advices from all sources, most of them wrong. They were conflicting as well and they were still wrong. The points about who takes responsibility and the delay are well made. It is correct that it is the Minister for Finance. It is also for the Minister for Finance and his or her cohorts in government or out, as the case may be, to face the electorate afterwards and to face the consequences. It is a fairly challenging position for any parties, as was shown during the crash.

Dr. Sweeney mentioned Mr. Draghi's famous speech on quantitative easing. The pressure was eased straightaway. I am worried about one other thing, which is the concentration on doing everything possible. I realise we need to do everything possible on climate change to reduce emissions etc. However, we would want to be very careful that if we damage the very means we had for extricating ourselves from the economic disaster on the last occasion in terms of the food production capacity, food exports etc., we will be limiting the extent to which we can work our way out of any difficulty in the future. Is that not correct?