John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

The Tánaiste has used an interesting phrase, namely, "transitional issues". For how long will we experience these transitional issues? In other words, for how long will the position get worse before it gets better? The Tánaiste has repeated her assertion that it is not correct to state that money was used for current spending when it was intended for capital purposes. However, does she not understand that this is how it appears when one examines these figures and sees a capital underspend of €57.5 million with a current overspend of €53 million? Are we not examining this sufficiently carefully or has the Tánaiste explained it in a different way? She mentioned the manner in which people do accounts, even in political parties, but is it not the case that one can bandy around figures and make them look as one wishes?

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