Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The Minister has a nerve talking about people unwilling to take harsh medicine. Does he recall that many other reputable economists and I advised time and again that his predecessor, the Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, was stoking a property bubble in land speculation and construction prices which was totally unsustainable? We warned him time and again. Last year and the year before the cost of the property-based tax reliefs which drove this was almost €500 million. The Minister has the nerve to lecture others when he received eminent advice. He mentioned the ESRI. I admit that its medium-term review must rank as one of the oddest in the history of forecasts. I suspect there may be a story behind this because the Government chose to take what it wanted from it. The Minister has a nerve blaming others.

See this speech in context