Financial Assistance (Ireland) Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Financial Assistance (Ireland)

David Rutley Excerpts
Monday 22nd November 2010

(13 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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George Osborne Portrait Mr Osborne
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Let me speak for Government policy. We will not join the euro. I believe that the Opposition’s official policy is to join the euro, but perhaps that will be discussed by their policy groups over the next two years.

David Rutley Portrait David Rutley (Macclesfield) (Con)
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The Chancellor is right to support Ireland, one of our important trading partners, at this critical time. Will he tell the House what steps he is taking to widen and deepen our trading relationships with fast-growing major markets such as China, India and Brazil? The Labour party missed a huge opportunity when it was in government.

George Osborne Portrait Mr Osborne
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The fact that we export more to Ireland than to Brazil, Russia, India or China is a statement of the interconnectedness of the Irish and UK economies, but also an indictment of our exports to the fast-emerging BRIC countries, which is precisely why, since taking office, the Prime Minister has led major trade delegations to India and China, and why we want to ensure that companies in Macclesfield and throughout the country can export more to those fast-emerging new markets.