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

The Minister of State said there are certain optimistic economic projections for growth which means our worst case scenarios are not likely to be borne out. Will she explain why the Fiscal Advisory Council suggests if we are even 1% off on our growth forecasts over the next three years, and all of the forecasts and commentary suggests we may well be, instead of having to have €8.6 billion of cuts over the next three years we will need €13 billion in cuts? How the hell can we promote jobs and economic growth if, as is looking very likely, we are significantly off on the growth forecast?

To meet those debt targets we will have to reduce our debt by half. Just under half of our national debt is bank related debt. Is it not true that what the treaty actually requires is that over a 20 year period we will be forced to pay off the bankers' portion of the national debt? That is what it will require us to do.

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