Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I reiterate that the Government will be back at work, indeed before 7 January. There will be a Government meeting on 7 January but the Government will be back before then due to the pressing issues we are dealing with. In the course of the coming weeks I have indicated that as a result of meeting with the social partners there will be intensive discussions on bringing forward a plan for economic renewal, which will include a fiscal stability programme based on those discussions. We can come into this House and debate them. Similarly, that will also be the case with the service plan for 2009 for the health service.

It is important to point out that there will not be inactivity either on a Government or parliamentary level until the end of January. From the beginning of January there will be parliamentary activity in the committee system and the Government needs the time and ability to get on with that work we are talking about in terms of preparing such a plan for economic renewal with the social partners and also engaging in necessary trade delegations out of this country as we try to maintain and shore up the orders that Irish business is finding hard to win in the present circumstances.

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