Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

As stated previously, I will not accept that there was bad faith on my part in respect of doing the job to which I refer. I am prepared to engage in democratic debate on the political choices or decisions that have been made. However, I am not prepared to accept that others who at the time described my budgets as being measly, Scrooge-like or hopelessly inadequate can now suggest that we were spending too much during the period in question, when it is clear that the demands from the Opposition benches were to the contrary. The record shows that contemporaneous fact.

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