Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

The analysis coming from the Deputy opposite is invariably the same. I debated this with her in advance of the election. She is great at analysing the failure of somebody else's policy but a bit weak on offering an alternative. The truth is we need to get control of our own fiscal destiny. The only way to do this is to balance our budget. We cannot continue to borrow, as we are, €18 billion this year. It is just not possible. It is worse than an illusion, it is a deception, for some of the Deputies opposite to pretend that somehow if we tell the EU and IMF we do not want their money any more or we stop paying it back that we can still borrow. Nobody else will give us money.

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