Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I do not agree with having a legislative base. If we travel down that road a future Government or Governments or this House will be nailed down to figures in many areas. I assure the House that alongside the figure of 0.7 are other groups with other figures and they would want a similar commitment. Governments should honour it as best they can. I was disappointed we could not achieve what we wanted. I stated that openly. I was pressed hard to make a commitment for 2010 but I did not believe it was feasible. We can do it by 2012 but it is not easy. We trebled it over five or six years and we must treble it again. That is a significant contribution.

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