Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Given the fact that the sale of these assets, which the Minister described as non-strategic, was controversial and questionable to begin with, the least we can expect from him is a consistent position in terms of how he proposes to use the moneys.

The Minister outlined only a portion of how he intends to spend the €400 million in the kitty. I hope that he does not regard it as a slush fund of sorts that can dig him out of difficult questions in interviews or be used for speeches at his conference so that he might point to it as a way of resolving every problem under the sun.

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