Larry Butler (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the news that there has been reasonable growth in the retail business - at least 1% - in the first quarter of this year. This is the first time we have seen signs that we are coming out of recession. In addition, exports are up by 2.5%, which is encouraging. It is good to see the economy growing in that direction. The car industry has seen a major increase in sales, with more than 50,000 new registrations in the first quarter of this year, which is more than the number of cars sold across the industry in the whole of 2009. That is extremely encouraging. It is also encouraging to see this morning the report that the economy is expected to grow by 3% next year. These are items of good news such as Senator Quinn referred to which should be mentioned in the House.

We can learn a lot from the Greek economy. People cannot retire at 55 years if the economy is to keep going, nor can there be 1.6 million people employed in the public sector, as is the case in Greece. What was happening was total madness. Our economy was in a similar crisis and we had to put matters right. It is important-----