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

Some of us believe we should tell the markets to take a hike and not pay the €8 billion in interest on a debt that is mostly not ours. Will he confirm that the figure is €8 billion?

The Minister is hell-bent on going for the 5.1% target, which means either €2.8 billion or €2.9 billion in cuts. Most people do not care about the difference between the two figures because they are going to feel the pain regardless.

When he is framing his budget, will the Minister consider some redistribution of the pain he is planning to inflict by lifting the burden off low- and middle-income families and small and medium-sized enterprises and shifting it to those with wealth and large profits? Will he consider examining the corporate tax rate, wealth taxes or a higher tax rate for those earning over €100,000, measures that up to now he has refused to examine?

See this speech in context