Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach did not understand the question I asked him or has deliberately decided to avoid answering it. I did not ask the Taoiseach to give his opinion on the waste of public money; I am taking that for granted. None of us stands over the waste of public money.

I asked the Taoiseach if he accepted his Government's responsibility for that waste and if he would apologise to the people for it before he looks them in the eye and asks them to dig into their pockets to pay extra taxes or suffer reductions in services or, in some cases, reductions in pay and loss of employment. The Taoiseach said none of us holds a brief for waste. He did hold a brief for waste. It was his brief. He was in charge. His Government was in charge when all of this was taking place and some of his Ministers have direct responsibility for the agencies, Departments and, in some cases, for the direct expenditure involved.

We are not engaged in some kind of academic commentary here. The people of this country are being asked by the Taoiseach and Government to pay now for the consequences of what they did. In some cases they are being asked to pay for it with their employment and businesses. They are being asked to pay for it with taxes and the loss of services provided to the public.

All I am asking the Taoiseach to do - something he has avoided doing in interviews he gave during the summer - before he says to hardworking people that he wants more money from them in taxes, that he wants to cut their pay or that they might lose their job, is to look them in the eye and say he accepts he has been in Government for 12 years, that he was responsible for the country's finances for four of those and that he is now in charge of the Government, and that he accepts, on behalf of the Government, that a huge waste of taxpayers' money was perpetrated by that Government. I want him to say to them that he is sorry and say it before he asks them to contribute any more.

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