Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 43: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance his views on the findings of the ESRI quarterly economic commentary for spring 2008 which predicts that GNP will grow at its slowest pace since 1988, that the unemployment rate will reach 6% and that the Exchequer deficit will be over €5 billion for 2008. [15241/08]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I have noted the findings of the ESRI in the Spring Quarterly Economic Commentary. In this Commentary, lower levels of new housing output and the deterioration in the international environment are the main factors weighing on growth this year. The market consensus is now for GDP growth of around 2.25 per cent for 2008. However, there is currently a wide range of forecasts for economic developments this year, as in fact over a two week period a number of different forecasts including the ESRI's were published with forecasts ranging from 1.8 per cent to 3.5 per cent for GDP growth this year. What is clear is that while growth will be lower than in the recent past, it will be a higher rate of growth than can be expected in many of our trading partners.