Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Ceann Comhairle ruled that it is not appropriate for the Houses of the Oireachtas to discuss the views of the President. For this reason, I do not propose to get into that space.

Piling deficit upon deficit and debt upon debt is not a solution. Whatever else we do, we must deal with the deficit and our debt must be sustainable - that is the starting point. After that, we can build on jobs and growth strategies, as we have been doing with reasonable success. According to the European growth projections published by the European Commission earlier this week, Ireland will have the third highest growth rate in the European Union this year. We never said we would turn around the frightful mess we inherited within two years. The measures we are taking are successful and we have made significant progress. Nevertheless, I agree with all of those who argue that simply taking fiscal and monetary measures along the lines we are doing needs additional policy work and we are doing that.