Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

Who would pay for the schools, hospitals and gardaí? In Deputy Boyd Barrett's heart of hearts, he knows his proposition is entirely fanciful.

The Government has embarked on a path which will lead to a restoration of our finances and which has job creation at its heart. One of the first steps we took was to renegotiate the first memorandum of understanding to ensure we had up to €500 million in job focused expenditure. In the tourism sector, this expenditure has been effective from 1 July. I hope this initiative, of which we require more, will pay dividends. The more control we gain of the economy, the more decisions we can make to stimulate growth. The Deputies opposite are correct to the extent that we require economic growth to get out of the current mess we are in and that we must ensure job creation is at the heart of our decision making. However, the notion that there is some magic way of eliminating debt is a folly, as the Deputies know full well.

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