Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Has the Taoiseach at this stage examined the Exchequer trends for the quarter to the end of March, the results of which we will have in two days? It would seem very odd if the Taoiseach did not do what the proprietor of any business would; if there are cash flow difficulties or if one is in a hard situation, the person would sit on the receipts on a week by week basis and monitor trends closely. That is what every business person in the country must do, along with many households, with regard to budgets. They must watch what money is coming in and on the basis of that decide what can be spent.

In the RTE interview, the Taoiseach referred to the years 2002 and 2003, when our tax revenues were €29 billion and €32 billion respectively. The Taoiseach did not speak casually so is there information about the trends? In that context, has the Government priced in the cost of higher interest as a result of the negative rating by Standard & Poor's? My understanding of the drop in rating from AAA to AA+ by the rating agency would probably cost us an average of half a percentage point. Depending on how much the Government decides to borrow — we will not know this until the budget — the cost this year could be up to €500 million and it could be double that for the whole of next year. Has the Taoiseach had the opportunity to price in the Standard & Poor's action?

I listened with some astonishment to the gentleman from Standard & Poor's commenting on the composition of the Irish Government. That is not any business of a foreign rating agency. I am one of the people who for the last two years, together with the Party of European Socialists, has called for rating agencies to be reformed but the Taoiseach's former colleague, Commissioner McCreevy, has consistently refused to entertain such reform.

These guys boosted everything on the way up but are negative about everything on the way down. They have some factors relevant to this country wrong and we have more better prospects than the agency acknowledges. As the rating agencies are not subject to supervision, we are as a country unfortunately at their mercy. The Taoiseach may discuss that with his colleague in Brussels, Commissioner McCreevy, who has taken the very high-handed attitude that controlling rating agencies would be bad for international markets and capitalism.

What are the trends arising from the Exchequer receipts? Has the Government priced in the downgrade by Standard and Poor's and will the Taoiseach have a conversation with his colleague about reforming the rating agencies so that all countries get a fair deal from them?

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