Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

It is a fact completely denied by the Deputies opposite who maintain that we can walk away from the EU-IMF deal and somehow restore the lost resource by magic. The truth is that if we walk away from the deal and instruct the only funder available to the State to take a hike, as some of the Deputies opposite suggest, we would have to find that €15 billion immediately or shut down services. We would not be discussing minor cuts then, rather we would be discussing wholesale closures and sackings. It is not a sustainable position and it is clear that the gap between the revenues and expenditure of the State must be closed.

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