Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

——we can restore balance in the budget without damaging the economy unduly. We have set up a process by which we will do this and we have ensured that our expenditure programmes this year have come in on schedule. A difficulty has arisen in that 13% of projected revenue was not raised this year. We must react to this position, but we should not do so by adding taxes to the economy because all tax heads, not just those relating to construction——

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