Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Of course I am conscious that in an acute recession, such as the one we have now in Europe, we must have policies that are appropriate. Keynes was long an advocate of appropriate policies which included, during his time and which are still relevant, getting stability and confidence in a currency and having a system in which people will have confidence. That was not there during his time and, clearly, it is problem we must tackle at present. Equally, getting banks to lend was another obsession of Keynes. He wanted to get the system which had become broken repaired and back in action. That is absolutely true.

We need a growth strategy from Europe, and the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, is continually pursuing this at European level to complement, as Keynes would say, the stability of the currency and better banking policies. That is the trio that must be implemented if we are to get out of this recession. However, Ireland does not have the ability to deploy all those tools. Many of them require collective action across the 27 member states and that is extremely difficult to secure, as everybody knows from observing what is happening. There are huge challenges but we must ensure that the pieces we are working on are effective, and that is what I am seeking to outline.

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