Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I am not persuaded by the arguments or I would accept the amendments. The bottom line here is that €60 million is involved.

Deputy Burton referred to the need for a stimulus package. The capital programme in the budget is a substantial stimulus package. It involves in excess of €8 billion of borrowing that has been applied for investment purposes. That is a very substantial stimulus for the economy and is the type of package that most other small open European economies are adopting in the current economic circumstances. The type of stimulus package that Deputy Burton seems to envisage is one where tax, direct or indirect, is reduced in order to create more purchasing power in the economy. We know that such a measure in this country would lead to further imports. It is not clear that the decision of the United Kingdom Government to introduce such a stimulus will work.

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