Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The Taoiseach can take it from me now that the Fine Gael Party will continue to play its part in any necessary consensus. We will support what we believe in and we will oppose what we do not believe in. From the point of honesty and truth and having everything above board, if we are to start serious planning to deal with the catastrophe wreaked on the Irish people by the Taoiseach's Government, we have to know that the starting point is true and valid and can be stood over. From that perspective, none of the figures given to us by the Department of Finance or the Government, by the Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach, have stood up. I cannot believe a word from this Government's mouth when it tells me this is the starting point for preparing my plans and my response to the crisis. I want the integrity of the figures given to the spokespersons on finance yesterday to be independently validated.

The Taoiseach has known since the Central Statistics Office last June reduced its estimate of the size of the economy that things were not going to be the way he had predicted. He has known since the Minister for Finance saw the pattern of tax revenues that the economy was not going to be in the shape he was saying. He has known since last March that the bank bailout was going to be much bigger than was predicted in the stability plan last December. Why did the Taoiseach not act sooner when he knew these facts were coming down the track? Why did he close down this Chamber for three months last June when he could have introduced an emergency budget to stabilise the situation? Why did he not act in the interests of the Irish people? He let it drift right through the summer and now the people face a financial Everest for which they are being asked to pay and for which they were not responsible and in respect of which the politicians in here, in particular, the Opposition parties, are being asked to come forward with their plans. We will come forward with our plans but I need to know what is the starting point that can be stood over because every figure the Taoiseach has given has been wrong. This is a fundamental breach of trust and it is a situation I cannot tolerate any longer.

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