Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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That is very good. In a minute I will come to Mr. Moran's statement and try to get to the heart of what constitutes a thriving economy. I have made this point before and I will make it again today, and if I see Mr. Moran before me again I will make it again. He made an opening statement to say the key economic indicators point to continued solid growth this year, and there are almost two pages on this. He stated the robust pace of the recovery in the Irish economy continued in 2017, that it is broadly based and that the economic fundamentals are strong. On a practical level I have a great problem with this. I have mentioned the housing figures previously.

How could an economy be thriving when we have a housing crisis? The word "crisis" no longer covers it. Would Mr. Moran accept that more than 10,000 people are homeless, and that the figure is rising? Can he explain to me how he can say that the figures are fundamentally correct? Are the more than 10,000 who are homeless just collateral damage?