John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

The Opposition should stick to the facts. If it continues to act as it has, it will talk us into a recession, discourage investment and discourage everything for which we have worked for the past decade and beyond.

The economy grew last year by 4% to 4.5%. A previous speaker suggested the Minister missed an opportunity and did not pay attention to the real situation but he did precisely that. He was fully conscious of the new and changed environment and it was in that light that he set the budget and Finance Bill. He recognised that in 2008 the economy would not grow as it had grown in previous years and his target was a gross rate of 3%.

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