Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

This is very difficult to understand. The Minister seems to be saying that a downgrading of growth projections does not have consequences in terms of likely increased austerity, and he seems to be very sanguine, if one likes, about the downgrading of growth projections. Does the Minister accept that downgrading the growth projections has something to do with the extreme depression in the domestic economy resulting from the impact of austerity? The Minister suggests that the key issue is what occurs in the rest of Europe and in our export markets and so on. Is the point not that growth projections are now being downgraded because the same austerity is being imposed in those countries, shrinking the potential markets for our exports? This appears to be confirmed by emerging figures for January and February which suggest that our trade surplus has reduced substantially in these months. Are these not worrying indications that austerity is simply not working, that it will kill off growth and that it will require yet more austerity from the Minister and other Governments throughout Europe to meet their targets?

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