Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

He wants to see a situation where Ministers will in future have the incentive to bring in hare-brained ideas.

If the Minister wants to berate people for making mistakes in the past then, first, he cannot be as selective as he likes to be and, second, as the responsible Minister, he has to do something about it and correct this defect. It is a little rich for the Minister to make complaints about people who were around in the past and then happily sit on his hands to make sure nothing is ever done about it. I know the Minister is a great lawyer and he will deploy his immense brain to defend every position but, at the end of the day, we need some consistency. If he wants to end bad practices, he is being very selective in his belief that it was just about cheap credit. In any case, I hope he can see bad practices not just on this side of the House, but also the many mistakes made on his own side in respect of pumping up the property bubble.

I remember Ministers saying the property sector was based on sound economic fundamentals. When people argued with that, a prominent member of the Minister's party said that those who were complaining should commit suicide, they were so negative in their perception of how wonderful was our economic dream. People have woken up to the nightmare of-----

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