Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

If I can ask - if that is the final question - at the end of that speech Mr. Cardiff, you ask those, to be a hero, you ask them ... you say, "We have a crisis, get into it, fight for change, fight for savings, fight to deliver more services with less money, get radical, think the unthinkable." And then you pose a question where you say "in four years' time we'll look back and we'll ask ourselves what type of character we were in a crisis, be a hero". It is five year's time since that speech was delivered. Mr. Cardiff, the question I have to you is were you a hero during that period? And is that ... is the actions of these heroes what the Irish public expected in budget 2011 when you were asking them to think the unthinkable, which included cuts to child benefit, to social welfare, the introduction of USC, cuts to the carers' allowance, disability cuts, cuts to the blind, cuts to the minimum wage? Was that the type of heroic actions that the Irish public expected from their heroes?