Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I have often said it is not possible to bring a country to a point where it can have economic prosperity by austerity alone. The Deputy knows as well as everybody else that the problem of the country being €16 billion out of line will not be rectified or fixed by somebody else, it must be done by ourselves alone. That means striking a balance between current spending cuts, taxation measures and the injection of an impetus into the economy to create jobs, which represents the key to solving the problem.

The Government has indicated that there will be no increases in income tax and we will honour that commitment. The Deputy does not seem to realise that while the top 5% pay 50% of income tax, if the Government continued to increase income tax at the higher levels, we would drive away the people who create jobs, invest in the country and put people to work.

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