Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I am very happy to answer those questions. My assessment of the situation is that we inherited the biggest economic mess any incoming Government ever inherited. When we came into office last March, the banking system and the economy were broken and, as my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills often says, the country had effectively been put into receivership by the previous Government as a result of the arrangements made with the troika.

This Government is taking the country to recovery and we are making progress on that. I do not want to exaggerate the progress we are making because the path we must travel is a very painful one for people, in particular for those who have lost jobs, have difficulty paying their mortgages and have difficulty making ends meet. There is no easy passage here but we are on the way to recovery.

Whatever assessment the troika makes of the Government's performance - I expect it will be a positive one - as far as the Government is concerned, it is not about gold stars in copy books or anything like that. As far as we are concerned, it is another milestone on the way to recovery.

I refer to some of the things we have managed to achieve to date. For the first time in four years, the economy is growing again. It is very modest growth but it is growing. The figures published yesterday in respect of our trade performance - our exports - show that we have the biggest trade surplus in the history of the State. That is progress which has been made by the Government through the strategy it has pursued in expanding our exports and trade abroad in order that businesses here can grow.

I refer to the performance of the IDA in terms of inward investment. The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, published a report a couple of weeks ago which showed significant progress on inward investment and the creation of jobs.

I refer to the budget we introduced. Even in difficult times, we have been able to take 330,000 people out of the universal social charge net introduced by the previous Government. Some 1.8 million workers will not pay additional income tax in 2012 as against what they paid in 2011. The basic rates for 1 million people in receipt of social welfare payments have not been reduced in 2012 as against 2011. That is real progress in very difficult times. We will continue that progress.

Deputy McDonald and other colleagues in the House spoke to the troika during its visit here. It would be helpful if on this occasion she put on the green jersey and assisted the Government in dealing with the negotiations we must have with the troika.

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