Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Yesterday, the Fine Gael spokesperson on finance and his colleagues were briefed by the Department of Finance on the true figures regarding the economy. To say that the figures that were produced were outrageous is an understatement. They were appalling and they show that, from the beginning of the banking crisis, the Taoiseach has known the situation was far worse than anything the people were being told. Not only was the economy being destroyed by the Government but it was wilfully concealing the truth of the extent of that destruction from the people in what amounts to a national catastrophe. This cannot go on. We have lost trust in the Taoiseach and his Government and in their ability to tell us the truth.

This party will play its part in responding to this national crisis and we will produce a response to it but we will not do so on the basis of what the Taoiseach tells us anymore because every figure produced by the Department of Finance and the Government has been wrong. How many times have we turned the corner? How many times have the growth rates been pointing seriously upwards? How many times have we been told, even by the Taoiseach, that the extent of the deficit could not be more than €4 billion? I will no longer operate on the basis of the figures produced by Government. I want an independent verification process for these figures.

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