Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

The justification for this Bill is strict necessity. Due to a catastrophic fall in revenues, we have moved from a comfortable surplus position or near balance in the Government's accounts over a long period to a situation where this year we will be borrowing €18 billion or 9.5% of GDP, which is over three times the limit allowed for a member of the eurozone. We first of all must contain what has been a spiralling deficit and then take further steps to reduce it, without killing off the economy in the process. If we take a lesson from recent history, 20 years ago we started the process of national recovery by putting the national finances straight, alongside accompanying development measures. We will not achieve recovery unless we address that hole.

We are often inclined to exaggerate the outside world's interest in our domestic dramas, scandals, and follies. This time, however, there can be no doubt about the keen attention abroad being paid to potentially vulnerable eurozone economies, including ours, all the more so perhaps because of the star rating accorded to us up to the recent past. The question being asked is whether the Government in particular, and the political system in general, are capable of handling the situation.

If we were to withdraw this Bill or vote it down, as many are demanding, we would risk such an erosion of confidence that our economic destiny, for the first time since independence in 1922, very likely would be taken out of our hands. We would face as a condition of the emergency support we would then require, whether from inside the eurozone or outside, demands for far more drastic medicine, which would quite possibly make present complaints about fairness and equity seem like a storm in a teacup. Those of us who work in more protected areas of the economy and who find it difficult to accept that we now find ourselves in a completely changed situation need to wake up fast.

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