Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Nobody has answered the fundamental question here. Two years ago, this country was €6 billion in surplus. It is now €15 billion in debt. I accept that there have been improvements in infrastructure and so on, but the people on that side of the House did not take into account the warning signs that were there for many years of what could happen if provision was not made for a crash that might follow a period of boom.

It is fair to say that the workers of Ireland built the Celtic tiger. It was built through exports, trade and manufacturing, but it got diverted down the road of property-based wealth, driven by Fianna Fáil in particular.

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