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

Is it not the case that the Minister's own figures show that even if those growth projections had held up, we would have been looking at approximately €5 billion to €6 billion to meet deficit targets post-2015? Several billion would also be needed to meet the debt-to-GDP ratio targets contained in the treaty unless there is significant growth in the economy, which there is not because the growth projections are being downgraded. The Minister seems to be suggesting that we can have a €200 billion debt and a 3% structural deficit, and it will not cost us anything to reduce that to 0.5% or 60% of GDP. How can one make those sort of repayments and adjustments without it costing billions in cuts for ordinary people?

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