Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

We were faced with the dilemma of identifying areas where savings of €300 million might be made. No one has referred to the fact that the Christmas bonus for 2008 cost the taxpayer €223 million. We would have been able to identify savings of €20 million or €50 million elsewhere but not savings of €223 million.

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