Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The Deputy forgets, and perhaps deliberately, that this country is in a bailout programme while Spain is not. The money to pay the salaries of the gardaí, the teachers, the nurses and everyone else, comes from Europe. Spain is not in a bailout situation. It has excessive deficit and future challenges with which it must deal. However, it must reduce its deficit level to 3% by the end of 2013 while Ireland in a programme must reduce its debt levels to 3% by 2015. There is a big difference between the two situations. Spain is a big country with a huge economy and is in a very different position from Ireland. The incoming Spanish Government under Prime Minister Rajoy examined the situation and found it to be worse than what was originally envisaged. The Spanish Government sought to re-negotiate its own deficit target when it came into office which sets out that its target will be maintained, although there will be more severe cuts next year.

As the Deputy is well aware, Ireland is funded until 2013 in a programme. The difference is that while we would like to be out of this programme as quickly as possible, the fact is we are still in a programme. The salaries of the public servants, the ATM machines and everything else are funded from Europe by means of that programme. Spain is not in a programme. It has excessive debt and it faces severe challenges, but it has set a target to be down to 3% by the end of 2013. The Prime Minister and his government expect to meet that target. The two situations are very different.

See this speech in context