Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I acknowledge that the Government has been in office for eight years. That is true and the Government was returned to office at the last election. However, if we reflect on those eight years, while we can see challenges and difficulties, equally we can see major progress in Ireland. For example, last year, this economy created 72,000 jobs. When the two Government parties came to office in 1997, the unemployment rate was 11% and there was still emigration. Today we have net immigration and an unemployment rate of 4%. When we took office in 1997, 1.5 million people were at work in Ireland while today, there are 1.9 million people at work. Undoubtedly, we have made enormous progress.

See this speech in context