Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

I wish to pick up on what Senator Boyle said about the ESRI report which has introduced into our discussion something that is misleading. A headline in one of our main newspapers indicates that the EU target could spell disaster. Let us be clear that we are not looking and do not need to reduce our borrowing commitments because of our membership of the European Union or a target set in Brussels. The reason we must reduce them is we cannot afford to borrow on the money markets at a rate that is unaffordable and that there is still a €20 billion gap between what we take in and what goes out, not our membership of the European Union or a target percentage is being imposed on us. To pretend otherwise is to divert energy away from where we should focus it, that is, dealing with the crisis.

A tradition is developing of reducing the value of engagement between political leaders. I emphasise the significance of what happened yesterday. The leaders of the main Opposition parties went to Government Buildings, received information indicating a significant further deterioration of the budgetary figures, and still committed us to meeting a 3% target by 2014. That is a substantial commitment made on behalf of my party which will aim to lead the next Government to make the progress that needs to be made to stabilise the country's finances. Senator Norris was right to say the country was in the middle of a war, but he quoted a columnist who said we had lost our sovereignty. Let us not have such a discussion. We are still in a place where we can make decisions on how we can raise and spend money. While we still have that capacity, let us be proud of and make use of our sovereignty and not wish it away.