Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

We are committed to this, and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and his Department are leading the charge on alternative approaches to energy as well as the broader agenda. We are quite focused in this regard.

We have built up a strong cohort of indigenous companies and we need to protect them and enable them to survive in the global downturn, because Ireland is a small open economy. If we consider those economies that have suffered the most we will see they are the Asian economies and our economy - any economy that is small, open and depends on export growth. We must export 85% to 90% of everything we produce in this country, be it services or merchandise. All of our best markets are depressed at the moment and this is a challenge. The currency differential between the UK and Ireland is a further serious blow to our indigenous companies. That is a significant challenge to our export sector, which requires support. We must keep the focus on that.

However, we must also get the public finances right. The bottom line is that prior to the budget yesterday the deficit and borrowing requirement for this year was €23 billion, and now it is €20 billion. I acknowledge that it has been a very tough budget and the impact on working families is significant because of the amount of tax levied and the savings we have put in place. When we add in the public service pension levy, which was introduced in February, and the October budget, we are looking at significant moves in 2009. It is a tough budget, but we are saying to people that if we stick with this plan over the next three years we can make a significant difference and pull the country out of its difficulties. We have done it before and we can do it again.

The last ten years were not wasted. There is a tendency to rubbish all the achievements of that time. In 1997, our debt-to-GDP ratio was in the high sixties, while in the late 1980s it was close to 100%. We brought that down to 20% by 2007. It is now going back up because of the current difficulties.

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