Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is also a misconception around the cost of servicing the national debt. The factual position is that of the €7.5 billion in interest payments we face in 2015, when account is taken for the various asset sales and circular flows of income, approximately 10% is banking related. There is a misconception that if it were not for the interest costs, banking related or otherwise, we would have billions of euro in additional capacity to spend on day-to-day expenditure. Again, this is not the factual position. Looking to the future, interest costs are not included in the calculation of the expenditure benchmark and will have no impact on the available fiscal space. This is an important issue to bear in mind in an honest debate.

It must be remembered the State now holds significant assets which can be sold over time, generating the maximum return for the taxpayers’ investment. Retrospective recapitalisation by the ESM, European Stability Mechanism, remains a possible option, no matter how many times Members opposite wish to say to the contrary. However, it is no longer the only option open to us to recover the money provided to recapitalise our banks. Investors are now willing to support Irish banks again and the market value of our investments has improved accordingly. With respect to the State's shareholdings or ownership in the banks, Government policy remains unchanged. There is no desire to hold these investments in the banks over the long term. Subject to market conditions therefore, the Government will exit in a manner that maximises value for the taxpayer.

We will, of course, continue to engage at an international level to explore ways in which our debt burden can be reduced further. There are mechanisms at ECOFIN, the Eurogroup and the European Council to do so. Many Deputies compared Ireland's debt position to Greece’s. Ireland's debt position is not the same as Greece's.

As a small, open, trading economy we have managed to emerge from the economic and fiscal crisis and the country is now growing and, most important, jobs are being created. We have successfully exited the EU-IMF programme, and, as the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan recalled, in the most recent budget the Government was in a position, for the first time, to invest in public services and reduce the tax burden on individuals. Some people in the Opposition have done a very good job of making economic statistics abstract when they are not. We saw in yesterday's Exchequer figures that, although we did not increase VAT in the budget, the VAT take is dramatically up. We reduced income tax and the income tax take is up, excise is up and stamp duty is up. This is not magic money; these are real Irish families----

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