Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Of everybody here, a Cheann Comhairle, I am the last person you need advise of that, to be fair. I am glad to hear the Tánaiste will bring forward, hopefully as a matter of urgency, the matters regarding personal insolvency. It is bad enough to have certain banks robbing us but killing us as well is far worse.

Despite the Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition having laboured for 100 days and having brought forth a modest jobs initiative proposal, it appears this morning, according to those who know, that the raid on the pension funds to finance this will not apply to approved retirement funds which, according to those who know, one would need a lot of money for and which are not for run-of-the-mill workers.

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