Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I can imagine Sunday must have been a very emotional day for the Minister for Finance. For an Irish Minister for Finance to have to go cap in hand on behalf of his Government to no less than three international bodies - the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund - must have been extremely difficult and distressing.

I want to ask the Minister a number of questions about the proposals. First, the Government has made great play in the past couple of weeks about opening the books to the Opposition. However, it appears that one book the Opposition will not be able to open is the four-year plan. The Taoiseach could not even confirm the normal courtesies of giving the Opposition a copy of the plan a couple of hours or the evening before the plan is published on an embargo basis. While the media of the world will, I understand, be gathered in the new conference centre, perilously close to the ruins of the Anglo Irish Bank headquarters - is that off the agenda now-----

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