Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Well, I ... we did actively point out that we were heading in the wrong direction and that we needed to get back to a point where you were lean and competitive, where you were export-orientated, because you were never going to be able to deal with the social consequences of continuing to have public spending increasing at the rate that it was, of borrowing to continue to do that and, therefore, putting your vulnerable elements of your society in really ... really serious difficulty. So, our thread, right through from 1997, was you had a functioning economy, competent management of that economy and, therefore, the opportunity to spread the fruits of that economy to where they were needed most - to the vulnerable people. And, in opposition, it continued for a while until the focus became on the property sector in particular. So, in '03, '04, '05, '06 and as we prepared for '07, Fine Gael had consistently pointed out the dangers of where we were.