Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

This is something I have already done as Minister for Finance. It continues to be done by the Minister and the Department of Finance. That is an option which is available to us at any time. In fact, last night I was discussing with advisers the issue of how we can ensure that we do not have a reaction to the downturn as if we were not capable of getting through it robustly, on the basis of a much better economy now than would have been the case when these sorts of challenges faced the economy a quarter of a century ago. This has already been discussed among ourselves. We will continue to encourage and ask that the application of finance to prudent risk and to the availability of risk capital continues to be available to business. That is important but at the end of the day, we all know the duty they have to their own shareholders, as private companies. However, of course, we will continue to encourage in that direction.

Regarding the idea that there is no strategy, our strategy has already been outlined. We do not deal with strategies based on the publication of any finance house, however reputable. We base them on our own official data, which will be becoming available to the Department of Finance in terms of its mid-year——

See this speech in context