Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

Yes, the consequences of all our decisions for every citizen are carefully in balance. We must make choices that are difficult, choices we would rather we did not have to make. We will not pretend, however, that there is some magic solution. We are committed to getting our deficit down to 8.6% of GDP next year and there will be difficult choices required to get there. Just as Sinn Féin in the North is cutting £4 billion and scores of schools are going to close-----

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