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

We will continue to monitor where we are with regard to how economic conditions evolve. The Minister, Deputy Chambers, and I are very much aware of the impact this can have on households and businesses. If there was ever a moment to have the public finances in surplus or good health, it has been in recent years. If we were facing into all of this while borrowing, I would be very concerned about further decisions that we might have to make. God knows, we have many responsibilities and issues that we have to deal with and things we have to do better, for example, with regard to housing, but all of those decisions would be an awful lot harder if we were facing this world that is getting more volatile while we were borrowing. We are not.