Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

When I heard the Minister, Deputy Martin, say that the prices of the shopping basket over the year would fall by somewhere between €500 and €1,000, I should have known that the opposite would have been the case. He is one of these Ministers who, so long as his tie is straight and the script is available from the spin-doctor, out he goes. Anything at all comes off the top of the head. The impact has been the opposite. Given the Taoiseach's income and that of the tired band on his front bench, does he have any appreciation of the impact of these increases on ordinary people——

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