Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

That is why our programme and strategy is to work our way to economic recovery. That cannot be done by some kind of abracadabra economics which Deputy McDonald seems to advocate from time to time. It must be done consistently and over a period of time.

She talks about people external to this country. The reality, given the state of the economy we inherited this time last year, was that nobody in the financial markets would lend to this country and we had become reliant on finance from external people - the European Commission, the ECB and the IMF. Since last year we have worked consistently to stabilise the economic situation, to get growth back into the Irish economy for the first time in four years, to pursue a trade and investment strategy in order to get jobs into this country and to pursue a jobs strategy which is set out in our action plan for jobs and in Pathways to Work.

There is no easy solution or quick fix to the Irish economy. The only solution to the Irish economy is to work our way out of the programme in which we found ourselves, which is how we will get back our economic sovereignty, and to create jobs and growth in our economy and in the European economy. That is what will work and is what the Government is concentrating on.

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