The Minister, Deputy Howlin, told the House the advice from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council is independent and will be weighed up. The Minister, Deputy Noonan, has already accepted at least one piece of its independent advice, namely that the extent of the cuts should be ratcheted up to €4 billion in the forthcoming budget. As the Minister weighs up this matter, do the social costs of this type of brutal austerity feature in his thinking on the comprehensive spending review? The Minister's colleagues on the Government benches skulked in here last night and refused to support the community and voluntary sector.

Cuts of £4 billion in Northern Ireland.

The Minister's colleagues in Government have relentlessly attacked so-called lifestyle choices of people who live on €187 a week.

Teachers on strike in Northern Ireland.

The Minister's colleagues in Government——

Cuts of £4 billion.

The Minister's colleagues——

Sinn Féin's colleagues in Northern Ireland. Teachers on strike.

——have supported a strategy of big pay-offs for Anglo Irish Bank bankers, NAMA developers and ministerial advisors.

Sinn Féin supported the bank guarantee.

How many schools has Sinn Féin closed in Northern Ireland?

The Minister, Deputy Howlin has been clear on these matters but he cannot tell us definitively as a Minister and member of the Labour Party if he will resist even more savage austerity and if he will stand up for those who are suffering or if he will continue to be the cheerleader for Fine Gael policy.

Sinn Féin is the quare party to talk about suffering.

A united Ireland party when it suits, divided when it does not. What about the North?

Teachers on strike.

Suffering. Sinn Féin put people through it for years. Suffering. It put people through it for years.

Start tweeting Deputy Kehoe.

Put people through it for years. Suffering.

Tweet away over there.

Game-keeper up in the North, poacher down in the South.

Sorry, this is Thursday and Deputies have tomorrow off. Please let the Minister reply.

Some of us do not have tomorrow off. The Minister for Finance and I will be discussing the finances of the country with the troika tomorrow.

Thank God the troika is here.

No one else is thanking God the troika is here.

Who brought the troika here? Did Fianna Fáil not sell out the country?

We want our sovereign independence back. Fianna Fáil may welcome the loss of our economic sovereignty, the rest of the country does not.

At least the troika will stop the Government from making moreU-turns and telling more lies. Lies.

Let me deal with Deputy McDonald's point.

A Government of deceit, that is all it is.

The Deputy will be taking a shower if he is not careful.

Yes, the consequences of all our decisions for every citizen are carefully in balance. We must make choices that are difficult, choices we would rather we did not have to make. We will not pretend, however, that there is some magic solution. We are committed to getting our deficit down to 8.6% of GDP next year and there will be difficult choices required to get there. Just as Sinn Féin in the North is cutting £4 billion and scores of schools are going to close——

No, that could not happen.

——and 52 schools that were planned are being abandoned——

No, that cannot be right.

No, that must be wrong.

It is the all-island economy.

——that is a reality of being dependent on external funders. Just as Sinn Féin in the North is dependent on external funders——

No.

——and is content to live within the parameters if it means closing schools and firing library staff, with 30 library staff axed, that is the reality of reducing a budget. We must face that reality in this jurisdiction as well. I assure the Deputy we will do it in a fair and balanced way.

This is a sovereign Parliament. Why not fly the European flag fly over this building? This is a sovereign Parliament.

I welcome Deputy Howlin's recently found interest in the North of Ireland and its budgetary circumstances. If he examined what has happened just up the road, he would discover that despite a cut to the block grant, the Executive has worked to ring-fence services and to create new income streams for the most socially disadvantaged.

The Minister says he will not pretend. The great pretence is that everyone is taking the pain together and that the Government will defend the rights of citizens. The greatest pretence is that this Government represents different policies from those pursued by the previous Fianna Fáil Administration. That is the reality.

Sinn Féin voted for the bank guarantee.

The Labour Party is implementing it.

Who backed the bank guarantee? Sinn Féin did. It might not like it.

When the Deputy finishes his ranting, will he please allow the Minister to reply?

I put it to the Minister again.

Would someone give the Deputy a tap on the shoulder and tell him to turn it down?

Turn down the volume on "The Muppet Show" over there.

Will the Government, with the Labour Party in it, pursue even greater austerity? Are we looking at €4 billion in cuts and tax rises?

In Northern Ireland, yes.

Is the commitment to protect the social welfare budget still intact or has the Labour Party capitulated to its partners in Government and the EU-IMF troika, whose presence in our country all of us lament?

Sinn Féin supported the bank guarantee.

Labour is implementing it.

Deputy McDonald is fully aware of the scale of the problems we face. This Government inherited an economic mess and we are determined to put it right. The step we must take by next year is to reduce our deficit to 8.6%, not because we want to but because we cannot fund anything more than that. The funders of last resort are here and were brought here by the previous Government. We are going to make adjustments to get us to 8.6%. The exact quantum of that has not yet been determined and that is something——

Will it be done on the back of social welfare recipients and the low paid?

We will make adjustments across all areas of expenditure and do so in a fair way. We will lay out our decisions for full debate and see where Sinn Féin can find not funny money but real alternatives. If it can provide real alternatives, we will investigate them.

What about the €4 billion in waste the Labour Party was going to find?

Deputy Ó Cuív has had his chance. The truth is that finding that sort of money is not easy. Deputy McDonald's Sinn Féin colleagues in Northern Ireland know that finding €4 billion will result in decisions that the party finds unpalatable. The leader of the SDLP has described the decisions made so far by Sinn Féin as punishing low-paid workers, teachers, students, schoolchildren, the construction industry and all those dependent on the health services, has accused the party of crudely dismissing the advice of all independent commentators and has described Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland——

Is this a sovereign Parliament or not?

——as introducing a 1970s Tory budget——

Sinn Féin supported the bank guarantee.

Could Deputy Keaveney please stay quiet?

This sovereign Parliament is determined to regain our economic sovereignty.

So it is sovereign now? Is it a sovereign Parliament or not?

This is a sovereign Parliament——

Then stop comparing it with the Six Counties.

The normal procedure is we do not shout down speakers in this sovereign Parliament.

Answer the question, is this a sovereign Parliament or not?

The Sinn Féin spokesperson asked the question so would the Deputy mind waiting for an answer?

I will answer the question directly. This Government is determined to restore the economic sovereignty ceded by the previous Administration and will take the steps necessary to do that.

By attacking the poor and the less well off.