Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Deputy Adams is aware that the country's participation in a programme supersedes the figures mentioned in the political agreement reached in the early hours of last Saturday morning. As he is aware, this political agreement does not yet have legal standing. A great deal of technical work must be done before a text can be presented which will be ratified in various ways by individual countries. The fact that Ireland is in a programme supersedes all of this.

Deputy Adams's statement that I want to be the Taoiseach to retrieve Ireland's sovereignty is true. We do not have our economic sovereignty in the way the Deputy and I would wish because we cannot propose programmes at Government level without securing approval from the paymaster general, if one likes, the troika. From that point of view, I have announced that the Government will introduce a fiscal Bill next spring in respect of most of what is contained in the agreement and the ongoing work in the country.

There is nothing new here. It is in everybody's interests that fiscal discipline and control are exercised by countries in drafting their budgets. Deputy Adams should not have the impression that our philosophy is that a generation of austerity is before us. If we do not fix the engine of our economy, we will not have a country. The fact of the matter is that the rate of borrowing on a daily basis needs to change and it will change. When we make the changes that are needed, they will have an impact on growth, development, investment in jobs and job creation. Until that happens, we will not have the kind of country where we can stand with our own sovereignty, which is what I and - I assume - the Deputy would like. The political agreement that was reached last Friday will be the subject of detailed analysis and consideration by officials in all the countries before a text is presented. That text will have to be assessed to ascertain whether it conforms with the Constitution. If it conforms with the Constitution, the advice of the Attorney General obviously will be clear. If it does not and a referendum must be held, then a referendum will be held. Let us be quite clear on that. I want the Deputy to understand that we cannot have the necessary growth, development, job creation and career opportunities for the young people in the Gallery, and their peers around Ireland, until the engine of our economy is fixed. Our economy is in a poor state at the moment because of the state of our public finances. In such circumstances, we have to move forward and rectify these problems.

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