Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

If there is a global recession in all the markets in which we operate that has an impact in the real economy of this country. That is a predicament that every Minister of Finance and every Department of Finance must face. This Thursday, the European Central Bank, which has access to the data of all euro area banks in respect of the European economy, will revise its economic forecast, having made other forecasts two months ago. Similarly, the European Commission, a highly respected forecaster in this area, will make changes because the impact on the world economy, the European economy and every domestic economy is changing all the time. Therefore, nobody can say with definitive truth how long this recession will last, what its impact will be and how deep. We can only say that everybody agrees that, in terms of financial crisis and economic impact, this is the biggest challenge that has faced the world economy since 1929. That was 80 years ago.

That is not an argument to abdicate my responsibility as Taoiseach and Leader of this Government to come into this House and take whatever decisions are necessary however difficult they may be, knowing they will be painful for everybody. It is my responsibility to come into this House to make sure our international credibility as a modern economy is upheld and maintained by meeting the targets we must meet. That is our bounden responsibility.

We will look forward to any ideas that people in the Opposition wish to put into that debate. If they wish to stay away from it that is a matter for them but I do not believe that is their disposition. However, if it is, so be it. At the end of the day, the Government must make the necessary decisions and we will do so. We will do so in the full knowledge that what we are trying to achieve is stability in the public finance position and we will take on a challenge, the magnitude of which has not been faced in this country, in this political generation or the preceding one. We will take those decisions in the very best interests of the country, regardless of the immediate consequences.

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