There is no divergence of opinion between the Taoiseach and the Tβnaiste about the economy, Ms Harney has told the Dβil.

"The fundamentals are sound" the Tβnaiste insisted. "Just because you stop driving a car at 100 miles an hour and slow down to 70 miles an hour, does not mean you're not still driving the car." She said that new "early warning systems" for job losses are in place and all the executives working overseas for Enterprise Ireland have "been at home over the past few weeks meeting Irish companies and trying to help them in a new marketing drive".

In the Dβil yesterday, the Fine Gael leader, Mr Michael Noonan said the Taoiseach had agreed with the governor of the central bank that the economy was heading into a recession. Criticising the "early warning system" of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment for job losses, he said October was the worst month for unemployment figures since 1967. Mr Ahern had said on Wednesday that growth would fall to 2.5 per cent in the first three months of next year, and warned that Ireland had to face "hard realities", although there was still quite an amount of buoyancy in the labour market.

How could the Tβnaiste still hold her opinion of two weeks ago that "Ireland had the fastest growing and most successful economy in the world", Mr Noonan asked. The Labour leader, Mr R·air∅ Quinn, questioned the system of "advance warning" and communications about potential job losses, and suggested that the Tβnaiste had become "comfortable and complacent in Government", presuming the boom would continue forever "and now that reality has struck, she is unprepared".

Ms Harney stressed "there is no difference between the Taoiseach and myself". The Taoiseach would be upbeat in the US and would point out the benefits Ireland had to offer. Difference people had different perspectives she said.

A "difficult situation" should not be hyped, and her opinion had not changed. "The economy continues to perform well and it is the most successful in Europe. Unemployment is below 4 per cent. In Germany, France and other countries it is 9 to 11 per cent ." They had to put things in perspective.

"The economy is doing well. There are huge international difficulties. We are not doing as well as we were. We are an open economy." But the fundamentals were sound and Ireland had a good budgetary situation, relative to 10 years ago. "We must maintain confidence in ourselves as a people and as a country."

Mr Noonan said however that the Central Bank governor had said the Celtic tiger phase of the economy was over. The Tβnaiste's opinion was at variance with the Governor's. Nobody had told the Tβnaiste about the 700 job losses at Tara Mines, he said. "What kind of an early warning system does she have if 700 jobs go out of the economy and nobody even tells her it is about to happen?" However the Tβnaiste said there was "no early warning system or complicated formula that can tell us what may be decided in a boardroom in the United States or somewhere else."

Events happen and "no matter what early warning system you have in place it cannot predict all events". She said the Tara Mines workers were on protective notice and "there are industries in difficulties and restructuring all the time, even in good times".