John Crown (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. To say that the pact is not an austerity budget reminds me of Big Vinny, the debt collector. When Big Vinny comes to one's house, he just wants his money. He does not tell one how to get it, or whether the kids should go hungry or not have health care. He just wants his money. To be honest, we are now being told to get the money.

I am not an economist or a Minister of State but a relatively simple doctor. However, I have had a look at the treaty and at Phillip Lane's dissection of it at the recent Dublin economic workshop. It is not clear to me, perhaps due to some ignorance on my part, what is a structural deficit. This leads me to two simple questions that I wish to ask the Minister of State on behalf of the people of the country, most of whom are not economists. What is the structural deficit and how exactly will it be calculated? Second, exactly what part of the treaty and its limitations on the structural deficit would have prevented the economic meltdown in the eurozone area over the past decade?