Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

-----and getting people back to work. We have to deal effectively with the economic crisis, reduce the budget deficit and deal effectively, as we are doing, with the banking situation.

Deputy Higgins will have noticed the approach the Government took earlier this year on the banking situation is working. Private investment is now going into Irish banks, including the recent private investment in Irish Life & Permanent. We are pursuing a strategy which is about investment and getting people back to work. That is the focus of the Government.

It would be helpful if, instead of using 100 year old rhetoric, Deputy Higgins would make some modern proposals for today's world to deal with the problems of those experiencing unemployment, mortgage and other difficulties. We want to deal with those issues. That is what the Government is focused on and what we will deal with successfully.

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