Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

He is the person whose Government has attacked the vulnerable and the defenceless time and again. When I proposed six years ago that if the Government was going to pay for benchmarking, the very least it should do is look at the possibilities of public service reform and the cost of that. Benchmarking is now costing €2 billion per annum. I was here in the 1980s when tax rates were 60%, interest rates were 20% and inflation was 16%, and all Fianna Fáil did from these benches was scoff and not give any credit or assistance in the national interest to the Government of the day.

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