Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

I wish to pick up on the question Senator Mooney asked the Leader about what is happening with the financial markets and suggest a more obvious answer as to what is driving the trend today. The financial markets doubt the credibility of this plan. There was a marked difference between the market reaction to the Greek plan and to our plan. When the Greek plan was announced, Greek shares, Greek banks and Greek bonds all improved. There has been no change to ours. In fact, a deterioration has taken place. That is the key question we must confront which leads on to a second point I wish to make about the interest rates.

The rule of thumb in evaluating whether interest rates are sustainable is whether an economy can grow more quickly than the rate of interest being charged. To make this plan credible, the rates of growth we would need to deliver next year and the year after are greater than 5.8%. The question we must ask is whether people believe that is possible. If they do not, it leads to a credible questioning of the nature of the plan. We would be in dereliction of our duty if we did not do so.

I agree with the amendment Senator Fitzgerald tabled. There has been much talk about sovereignty, and perhaps rightly so. It would be an extraordinary signal of how cheaply this House regards its sovereignty if it did not discuss immediately this plan which will have such a considerable impact on the future of our country.