Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

It does not count in Brussels. I will conclude on my response to Deputy Lee's comments. What we must do, as the Labour Party and Fine Gael have acknowledged, is to stabilise the figure at 12%. That is the target of this year's budget. We cannot allow the figure to deteriorate further. Given the general economic signs in the economy, the growing improvement in the live register position, there is no doubt in my mind that we can stabilise this figure. Let us do this and have a theoretical debate about the exit strategy afterwards.

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