David Norris (Independent)

Perhaps you might indicate when that barrier has been reached so that I can break it.

This is not a tsunami and is not an inevitable naturally occurring phenomenon. It is man-made and there must be a way out of it. It is a mirror image of the 1929 crash, of which people of my generation heard but have not experienced, and that is worrying as we are back in the same situation. However, there are some positive developments. In addition to its report on Ireland, the IMF produced a report on Wednesday indicating that the world economy was starting a recovery but that it was likely to be weak and we might hit the double bounce situation rather than having a sustained economy, and that would be extremely worrying.

There is obviously an attempt by Government to spin the IMF report, which is, by and large, neutral.