Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

On the day the jobs initiative was announced, I said "to ensure that the sector is delivering, the effects of the changes announced today will be assessed and the measures reviewed before the end of 2012 in the context of preparing Budget 2013". My approach to this morning's Committee Stage debate is that I would like to give the Opposition as much information as I can. Committee Stage is usually quite relaxed. It involves an interchange of information. It does not need to be contentious. I want to set out the background thinking informing our approach to this difficult fiscal situation. If the provision of extra information is fuelling a series of ill-founded allegations from Deputy Pearse Doherty and others, I will go back into the burrow that was inhabited by my predecessors and stick closely to the text of the Bill without departing from it. If the Deputies opposite want a full and frank discussion, we will have it. If it sparks off many ridiculous accusations, why should I engage in such a discussion? That is my position.

See this speech in context