Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

There is one issue the Government has not addressed. Later this year or sometime next year, we may exceed the Maastricht criteria. In that case we may need to go to Brussels and discuss with our EU partners whether our national development plan's investment programme allows us to exceed the Maastricht criteria in some way. Given the way the Government has behaved, it is difficult to say whether we will have friends to count on or whether we will get a rough ride. The Government has not done a good job over the past month for the people or for the country. It was too taken up with the succession to Deputy Bertie Ahern and was paralysed as a result.

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