Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

-----and bought the elections of 2002 and 2007. There was no end to the money on offer. It created an expectation that this would work, but it did not and, like the people who built the Tower of Babel, the Opposition is now speaking in diverse tongues and its members cannot understand one another. I am not surprised by this, but they have certainly run away.

What really takes me to the fair is when I hear Opposition spokespersons who were in government only ten months ago expressing surprise that there has not been a transformation in the past ten months. We are asked on a regular basis why the economic problems have not been solved. They took 15 years to bury the economy up to its ears. They are like the truck driver who drove into a swamp and then, when the relief driver arrived on the scene, told him to get the truck out. I am surprised that they have not apologised. I would have expected this of Opposition spokespersons in the party of which Deputy Mattie McGrath was previously a member. I hope he will make the apology on their behalf since they are not present. I would have thought they would apologise for leaving the country in such an appallilng mess. However, they have now reverted to a series of soundbites, expressing baby-like surprise and wondering about the awful state the economy is in and asking why the Government has not done something about it in the past ten months.

I compliment Sinn Féin on the constructive way in which it has gone about its business in Northern Ireland. It has taken its responsibilities seriously and, with its coalition partners, set about shrinking that economy because there is no money available. It accepted the need to do this, and I would like to see it do the same here by applying the same rules and principles and recognising that the people face a serious problem. Rhetoric will not solve the problem. All of the decisions taken by the Government, sad though they are, had to be taken simply because there was nothing else it could do.

I hear Members on the other side of the House saying there should be a stimulus package; let us inject more money into the economy. Where is the money about which they are talking about? Do they not know the country is broke? Do they not know what this entails? Do they not know the sacrifices the people must make in order to drag the country out of the mess it is in?

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