Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

That is to ignore the serious implications for a small, open economy like Ireland of problems that even the world's largest economies are having difficulties in coming to terms with. Ireland is not immune to international developments. Since the late 1950s it has been clear that Irish prosperity is strongly associated with deep international links. If Fine Gael does not understand and appreciate that, it is not able to give economic direction to this country.

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