Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

As I outlined in my reply, the arrangements in place are confidential between the Deputies concerned and the Government. The issue is that it is based on the programme for Government.

The economic basis on which we are trying to implement the programme for Government applies to other arrangements also. This implies we must reach a 3% deficit target by the end of 2014 and bring forward a budgetary policy within that framework. All decisions that are taken are taken on that basis. That is consistently the case right across the board in terms of the programme for Government, between the parties in Government-----

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