Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

We have to grapple with an economic challenge that no Government in the history of the State has had to deal with. We have lost our economic sovereignty. Perhaps some Deputies do not understand that, but it is a fact of life. We are being examined on the conditions of the IMF-EU bailout deal by the troika and we are meeting those challenges. Every one of the European institutions has backed us up on that. We cannot get away from the fact that the country is in hock and we must trade our way out of it. We must cut out waste and abolish quangos that are useless.

We must ensure that our people understand that these are very challenging times which will not go away by the Deputy standing up in the Chamber and asking us to forget about the crisis and walk away from the debt. That crisis will only get worse. We must deal with it in a fair and balanced way and we will.

See this speech in context