Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, when Minister for Finance was described by Fine Gael as Ebenezer Scrooge. The Labour Party described his spending as hopelessly inadequate and totally insufficient. There is a great deal of revisionist rhetoric going on today. The reality is that the Opposition was not then asking us to spend less money but was screaming at us to continue to spend more. At no stage did it seek increases in taxes to fund extra expenditure. The Labour Party was the first to promote income tax cuts in its manifesto prior to the last general election. Deputy Varadkar has admitted Fine Gael also made mistakes in its manifesto prior to the last election.

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