Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

The focus of such a debate should be on where Ireland could end up, were one to begin to agree with certain commentators in respect of what the political parties have agreed to in principle. When the State pays more than 5% to borrow money and when growth in the economy is not expected to exceed 3% over the next few years, we are in trouble. As matters stand, the State is paying in excess of 6% on borrowed money and this simply is not sustainable. The State will seek to borrow €50 billion over the next four years and even if we manage to reach the 3% target by 2014, we still will be obliged to borrow every year to pay for public services, pensioners and social welfare recipients. We need to demonstrate to the individuals who will loan the State billions of euro over the next couple of years that we have copped onto what has gone wrong with the country and that we are willing to put our shoulders to the wheel to sort it out.

I ask those who believe the ESRI is correct to outline what they think would be the consequences, were the State to agree to the objective of stretching out the deficit reduction over another few years. We would lose credibility on the grounds that we were afraid to take on our own problems. Such people also should comment on where that would lead us because if for any reason the State's cost of borrowing rose to 7% next year, that would constitute an unsustainable option for the country. All Members acknowledge there will be massive suffering for everyone over the coming years. It does not matter whether one is a social welfare recipient, a pensioner or a middle-class person. Everyone will suffer because the economy has been badly mismanaged over recent years, the game is up and we must deal with it. The debate must be based on this premise. We must be mature about it because this is an awful position in which to be.