Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

The Government got lucky on the interest rate. There is a litany of replies to parliamentary questions and statements made in the House which referred to a rate of 1% and then the acceptance of one of 0.6%. The Minister may have argued in favour of a cost of borrowing, but he got lucky. The reduction in the interest rate did not come about as a result of his negotiating skills; it happened because of the contagion effect, particularly as it relates to Italy and Spain.

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