Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I have listened with respect to the contributions of the Tánaiste, Deputy Coughlan, and Minister for Justice and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern. While we heard about the need for constructive debate and honest consideration of our problems, I did not hear one proposal from either Minister on how to achieve savings in expenditure or through tax, on employment initiatives, growth or any other area. Instead, I heard an attempt to distort the past by using obscure quotations to seek to present Opposition views in a distorted manner. Either we try to approach our problems in a constructive manner or we enter the warped world of the Minister for Justice and Law Reform, one in which he seeks to score points against the Opposition by finding obscure statements to try to pretend we said things we did not say.

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