Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Lee introduced a wider question and I was somewhat disturbed by the thrust of his remarks. The issue is not how long we spend exiting from the excessive deficit position. It is true that we have an agreement with the Commission, which runs for five years. It is true we are the first European country to get into serious difficulties. Many other European countries are now surpassing us in their difficulties and because of this the Commission relaxed the period by one year. No doubt there will be a debate next year about how long the exit strategy in fiscal terms should be for all member states. We will participate in the debate and I have an open mind on the issue.

I do not have an open mind on the fact that we must make a €4 billion adjustment this year. I welcome the support of Fine Gael and Labour on this point. We have escalated to a deficit of 12%. We thought it could be stabilised at 6.5%. This did not become apparent last April, it became apparent all through the latter half of last year.

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