Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am talking about the collapse. When the economy was driven over a cliff in 2008, the country went bankrupt. Anyone who is not suffering a loss of memory knows that there was very little money. We were cutting back rather than spending. It has only been in the past two years that a large chunk of money has been provided for social housing. The Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government was given €5.5 billion for the next five years. Now the social housing work is moving through the housing agencies and local authorities.

I would be the first to admit that during the recession, we barely had enough money to keep things going. We were doing that by borrowing from Europe and the IMF. It is great to ask in hindsight why we did not spend money but we did not have it. That is what it came down to.