Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

-----and will engage constructively with the Government in that regard.

What has happened is that the hopes and the spirits of hundreds of thousands of people have been shattered by what they were told last year, namely, that if they made these contributions and sacrifices, it would go a long way towards sorting out the position. That is not the truth of the matter.

We have a situation now where €100,000 is spent on a child in prison and €5,000 on a child in primary education. We have a situation where the State does not want to know children on the streets until they reach the age of 18, when they are no longer the responsibility of the State. Hundreds and thousands of businesses are today suffering from lack of credit-----

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