Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

It is just not good enough and it will not deliver to people. It is causing unemployment, which is rising to levels that have not been seen in a generation. It is causing inflation that is hurting people. Irish shoppers now pay 30% more for basics here than in the North of Ireland. Much of that has occurred because of the way the Government mismanaged its public sector responsibilities. It failed to reform, change, deliver efficiently or keep down prices in public sector bodies. We are paying the price in lost jobs and public service cutbacks. The two Brians woke up like two dazed men from a deep sleep to discover that the public finances were sinking below the Plimsoll line. They did what comes easily to them, cobbling together a few mindless measures that do nothing about the underlying economic problems.

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