We also have responsibilities to the Irish people. We have a responsibility to protect the economy and to foster conditions which will maintain high levels of employment and generate the resources which we need to keep improving our public services. If this requires difficult decisions in the short term we are willing to take those decisions. We take these responsibilities seriously. The lessons of the past have shown us that high taxation rates and high levels of borrowing do not deliver the economic and employment growth levels of recent years. We cannot repeat the mistake of the past.