Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I do not have the exact information to hand on the increase in the cost of borrowing. The Deputy appreciates that there are considerable difficulties for all countries accessing funds in international financial markets. I am confident, however, that we will be in a position to fund whatever borrowing will be necessary next year, even on the revised assumption set out in my reply. It is clear that the fiscal strategy will have to be revised on receipt of the end of year returns. No reputable economist predicted the scale of the international deterioration in the second half of this year. No reputable forecaster made these forecasts; they have come to pass.

Regarding the suggestion that it was a mistake to bring forward the budget, the situation was already very serious by the end of August. That is the reason the Government made a decision to bring forward the budget. Having access to a revised set of figures at the end of November would not have advanced the budget. There is a deterioration and when one is faced by a deterioration, the quicker one takes effective action the better. We took effective action in the budget in October. The most important feature of that effective action which the Deputy will have to persuade many of his party colleagues to accept is that the country needs to take certain harsh economic medicine. The Deputy cannot oppose every saving every Wednesday evening here and then turn around and maintain his economic purity.

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