Simon Harris: “A protest is a protest, and protest is a perfectly legitimate thing in any democracy, and I'm never concerned around…”

Irish people work hard for their money and we are determined to make sure their money can work harder for them, and I look forward to setting out more detail in the Budget on October 6.

These latest figures show that almost 49,000 households have now been supported through help to buy.

Operating within a single currency would eliminate exchange rate risk, reduce transaction costs for businesses and consumers, and simplify cross-border trade and investment.

I very much see this budget as a kind of a direction of budget and setting out the direction of travel that we intend to take.