John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

-----there should be a sense of reality. There is a recession facing this country the like of which we have not seen in 40 or 50 years. The sad reality is that the response to it requires tough measures, coupled with tough decisions. It should be recalled that last October this House welcomed an across-the-board increase of 3.5% in social welfare payments. Why would a political party or Government go out of its way to become unpopular? They do not do that. The Government has consistently increased social welfare over the years, particularly last October by 3.5%. The difficulty now is that the revenue-----

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