Mr. Charlie McCreevy:

But that is ... like when we ... in all my time there, in all those years, Deputy, we were the most ... I have given the figures for our spending as a percentage of GNP in my address earlier to the committee. And you can see even in terms of gross current spending, which is the most legitimate one to look at, that the percentage is in or around 30%. We did all of that, reduced the national debt and still had budget surpluses. So, I would contend - you could have a different opinion - I would contend that we were most responsible than any other Government in the history of the State. No other Government in the history of the State ever had budgetary surpluses and we had budgetary surpluses after large increases in spending, after large capital expenditure and that was the success of our economic policy. So, therefore, I think there was ... we .... the things that we did in terms of expenditure were all justifiable. I'm not saying that every euro or pound that was spent in every corner of the country was maxed to the maximum effect. But, in general, what we did, I believe, was correct.