Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Would Dr. Sweeney agree that we have certain pressing issues, such as housing, emissions and health services? We also have capital expenditure issues relating to critical areas of the country that are badly served by roads at present.

For example, the road to Derry was tragically mentioned in the last week or so. It is obviously a road that needs urgent treatment. That is a pressing issue as well.

We still have a number of pressing issues and I am mindful of the fact that we had to claw our way out of the previous financial crisis. The IMF was sitting above in Government Buildings on a daily basis for a long time. It seemed to go on interminably. We had to accept what happened and face up to it. There were conflicting views on it but it so happened that the view of the Government of the day was the correct one and its approach was the correct one. I accept Dr. Sweeney's acknowledgement of the fact that if we destabilise or damage the productive sector, the very sector that enabled us to work our way out of the abyss on a previous occasion, we could find ourselves in a very difficult situation in the future.