Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

In his contribution, Deputy Mattie McGrath said the deal must be abandoned as it is a bad one. It was not a good deal. It is not a good place for us to be in but we need money at affordable rates now to pay for our services and to provide for the things we need to do and to incrementally get ourselves out of that hole and out of those clutches. I say to all of those who suggest we should abandon the deal because it is a bad one, "What then?" How are we to get the money to provide the goods and services? It is not good enough to hear the cliché of "Tax the rich".

Anyone on the Opposition side of the House who has a proposal on taxation or anything else should send it to me and I will have it costed and publish the result. I will see how many people are in the brackets to which the Deputies opposite refer, what the yield would be and what it would be against the level of money required to run the economy and to keep the floor of decency which the Government is determined to do. I did not deliver the concluding remarks that were circulated. It is important that we have many more debates anchored in reality to tell the full truth to the people.

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