Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

What are we going to do?

In the White Paper on Government expenditure published on Friday night, the bill for interest this year for Ireland is €5.1 billion. Three years ago Ireland was paying €1.5 billion a year in interest. I ask the Taoiseach to bear in mind all those women who will lose their child benefit and the heavy lifting, so to speak, they will have to do as a result. Of the €6 billion adjustment, €5.1 billion will be the extraordinary bill for interest to be paid by Ireland under this fantastic deal the Taoiseach negotiated for us.

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