Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

We have acknowledged our mistakes, worked might and main to rectify them and put in place the measures to ensure that these mistakes can never be made again.

Our country must now move forward with confidence and purpose. The underlying strengths of our economy, built up over many years by our citizens and by the actions of successive governments, have survived this crisis.

We continue to have a highly skilled, flexible labour force with one of the highest levels of formal education in the OECD.

During the boom, we built a world class road network; we invested in our public transport, our education and social infrastructure. Continued capital investment in the next four years will ensure that the economy is well equipped for recovery.

We have developed a highly competitive, pro-enterprise taxation system which incentivises innovation and high-value economic activity. The measures I have introduced today will benefit our domestic sectors that have been especially badly hit by this downturn. We will defend our 12.5% corporation tax rate against all comers.

The actions we have taken in Government over the last two years have helped us to regain competitiveness. Wages have adjusted and costs have fallen. More needs to be done but we are pricing ourselves back into global markets and the performance of our export sector is the proof of our success.

We know we can have sustained, balanced, export-led growth in the economy. We had it in the past and we have what it takes to win it back if we pursue the correct policies. We have been through a tumultuous two years culminating in our application for external assistance. Today's budget is our first step in ensuring that we can get back firmly on our own feet. It is a substantial down payment on the journey back to economic health.

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