Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

For some time the Labour Party has argued that the restoration of our economic fortunes and the settling of our public finances needs to be done over a period of years, not just in one year. The Labour Party agrees with the objective of getting back to the 3% figure by 2013. Now we must address how we will achieve that. I welcome the Taoiseach's decision yesterday to invite the Irish Congress of Trade Unions back into discussions. I called for this at the weekend and I am glad the Taoiseach responded to that call. I hope those talks will take place soon and that they will avert the prospect of a national strike next Monday or industrial strife or strikes in the future.

The starting point of those discussions will be where the Taoiseach left off in January when he agreed a framework with the ICTU which provided for a €2 billion adjustment in the public finances. That was subsequently taken up by the pension levy and the other measures announced in January about which working people are angry. The first item on the agenda will be to determine the target now. Since the Taoiseach agreed the framework of €2 billion with the ICTU the February Exchequer figures have come in and the Taoiseach has decided to have a second budget. When I asked the Taoiseach two weeks ago what the target would be, he said €4.5 billion. The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Smith, intimated on television on Sunday night that it could be as high as €6 billion, and subsequently retracted that. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Micheál Martin, stated on "Questions and Answers" on Monday night that nobody should be at all fixated on a target. There have to be some goalposts. The Taoiseach must tell the House what is now the Government's target for 2009 and, in so far as he can, perhaps he might indicate what this means for 2010 and beyond. We must have some clear idea about the target.

I saw, as did Deputy Kenny, what Dr. Ahern told the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party last evening. It is very similar to what he told a Labour Party meeting two or three weeks ago, to which the Government now appears to be subscribing, namely, that the 9.5% borrowing limit is no longer set in stone. The Taoiseach must tell us what is his take on that now.

The third thing he must tell us is what is the trend in the March figures. He seemed to have been caught by surprise in February in respect of the Exchequer returns of that month. He told the House that the first he knew about them was when he heard about them at a Cabinet meeting. That information subsequently caused the Government to bring in a second budget. Presumably, the Taoiseach and his Minister for Finance have been monitoring what has been taking place in March. Can he tell us if the position will be worse by the time we get to budget day because of what is happening with the March returns? By now, well into the third week of the month, the Taoiseach must have some take on these.

The two questions I want the Taoiseach to answer are, first, what the target is for the 2009 budget and, second, what the trend is in the March figures and if that will make the February position worse.

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