Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail)

This is a significant day for thousands of pupils all over the country who are starting the leaving certificate and junior certificate examinations. On behalf of the Fianna Fáil group, I wish them the best of luck in their endeavours in the next few weeks. It is an examination I would not like to do, but I am sure they will excel.

On 17 June the Government will have been in office for 100 days. We appreciate that every Government needs to bed in, but many pronouncements were made before the general election on what would happen in that 100 days. A matter raised in the Lower House yesterday, the EU-IMF deal and the interest rate cut, caused me some concern. Several Ministers, including the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, stated publicly that a cut in the EU-IMF interest rate had been agreed and that it was just a matter of when it would take effect. I have a number of questions for the Leader in that regard. The Minister for Finance made the comment that any cut would apply only to moneys not yet drawn down. On 3 May he said, "For illustrative purposes, the saving arising from a 1% reduction in the interest rate charged on the full €45 billion available from EU sources would be €450 million for each full year borrowed." If we take an average of 7.5 years, it could be a saving to the Exchequer of €3.375 billion.

There was much discussion of the rate cut prior to the election and much of this was overstated to act as a smokescreen. In many respects it is not the be all and end all. Having said that, we understand from the comments yesterday of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, that the value of the rate cut is being exaggerated and in his view too much is being made of it.