Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

We have indicated that the date will be mid-November. We have to finalise that plan and we have to approve it as a government. That work will continue in the coming weeks. I will not have an exact date until the decision is made but that is the indicative timeframe we have in mind. What is important is we have stepped out of the markets, we will bring forward a four-year plan followed by the budget and we need, as we all are being reminded today, to emphasise the strengths in this economy. We know the weaknesses in terms of the fiscal position but we also need to identify and articulate the strengths. There seems to be an unfortunate predilection in some quarters to magnify weaknesses and ignore strengths.

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