Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Yes, it did. The first person sent out to do so was former Minister of State Deputy John McGuinness. I recommend to Members that they read again some of the very abusive terms he used to describe people who try to do a decent day's work every day and who are certainly not valued. The Government did this and did so at arm's length and by way of the various spinning mechanisms it has developed. It did it to soften public opinion and soften public servants and so it could get away with cutting their pay in the December budget.

There is a huge number of unemployed people and the Government is doing very little to get them back to work or to get the economy moving again. Instead of engaging in productive investment to get people back to work, it is pumping billions of taxpayers' money into the banks because of the guarantee it gave to them.

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