Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I had no meeting with foresters in Switzerland but I did notice snow on the pine trees high in the mountains. The Government has not yet made a decision on the sale of State assets, including Coillte. I know that every weekend thousands of people avail of the beautiful opportunity to use the State forests for recreation purposes, including the trails, waterfalls, pathways, stiles and gates. I have been through many of them. When the Government makes its decision, is there a serious suggestion that all these amenities will be cast aside? We are talking about the potential that would arise from a cash crop of timber, and that clearly does not include the recreational areas of which people avail every weekend.

We discussed the question of debt sustainability and repayment with Ms Lagarde, as I noted in answer to Deputies Martin and McDonald, and we also discussed the question of having a requirement of borrowing €3.1 billion every year for ten years to deal with the promissory notes, which matter is now dealt with. The IMF was very favourable towards this country because of the steps being taken by the Government and the people to deal with these challenges. On every occasion that she could, Ms Lagarde was very forthright in her support for Ireland and in getting economic concessions from European colleagues.

It is true that we have made some improvement in the debt position and flattening the debt profile. Given our overall debt, there are serious challenges ahead, and we will not be able to deal with that until we get our public finances right and further increase our competitiveness and restore a sense of confidence to the national economy. The Government will continue to focus on access to credit for small and medium enterprises, SMEs, and opportunities to open those doors for those SMEs to feed off larger enterprises. We support the setting up of new businesses very strongly. I will meet the chief executive of the European Investment Bank later this afternoon to discuss further investment in potential infrastructure and, as a consequence, job opportunities in Ireland.

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