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

Go raibh maith agat. Mr. Kenny, when it was put to you by Deputy McGrath about that your Government advocated increase in expenditure, you replied saying, "Far from that." I would like you to refer to Vol. 2, page 78, and if you would indulge me, we'll actually look at some numbers, and I would ask you then to show me how you didn't advocate increased expenditure. What I want you to look at, in particular, is ... this is your election manifesto of 2007, which shows clearly that, under Fine Gael, you planned to increase current expenditure by €17.4 billion over the five-year term and capital expenditure by €3.4 billion in excess of that, which is in excess of €20 billion over the five-year term, which is very similar to the €23 billion that you criticised the Government for spending over the previous five-year term.

Do you accept, first of all, that under the Fine Gael proposals you were going to increase current voted expenditure by €17.4 billion from 2007 to 2012. Just if we can get that confirmation we can then move on to ... To give you the figures it goes from €37 billion up to €54 billion.