Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I will start with a quote from the late, great American economist, John Kenneth Galbraith, who stated that "Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable." I have a feeling this is where Fianna Fáil is at present.

As always, Shakespeare got it right, "When sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions". Today, as though to pile the misery on this incompetent and scared Government, the consumer price index shows that inflation is back at 5%. This follows the disastrous Exchequer returns of last week, confirming that by year end the tax returns are likely to be €3 billion short of even the revised forecast.

The Exchequer returns were preceded by the gloomy ESRI report which acknowledged what this Government has refused to admit that the economy is in severe difficulties, most of them home-grown by this Government. Governments love to blame external factors for every crisis. If things go well and oil is cheap Ministers smile and take the credit. When things go wrong and the price of commodities goes through the roof they wring their hands and state, "its not our fault".

So who killed Cock Robin and where has all the money gone?

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