Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----in this regard, by the way. I want us to break out once and for all of this boom-and-bust cycle that we have in Ireland. What we should be able to do in times when the economy is growing well, tax receipts are buoyant and we have full employment is balance the books and put money aside that we can then use to stimulate the economy if there is another downturn, if there is a slowdown or if we run into problems with Brexit. This is what we are doing.

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That is what we could not do ten years ago. As a result of bad economic management and bad planning, we ended up with years of austerity. I want to make sure that in the next downturn, whenever it comes, because it is inevitable, we will not have to cut pay, raise taxes or reduce welfare because we will have a fund we can dip into to use as a stimulus for the economy.

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