George Lee (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 32 to raise a matter of national importance, namely, the implications for the public finances of the statistics published by the Central Statistics Office yesterday, which show that the economy contracted at an unprecedented pace of 12% over the past 12 months whereas in the supplementary budget two months ago, the Government predicted it would contract by 8%; and the consequences of this shortfall, which suggests that the budget for 2009 is already seriously off course and further emergency budgetary adjustment could be required.

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