Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

Some of them were not, but if fate smiles on them, I hope they will be. With the passage of time, they will learn a little more about it.

What really makes me angry is that I was here during all that time; I lived through it. I saw all of this unfolding before, which is why I object to what Deputy Barry Cowen said. It is not personal, but I am telling him now that what happened in this country in the past ten years was an absolute disgrace. The country was sold down the river in a way that had never been done before. That is not a personal accusation, but I want to see someone on the other side of the House accept some responsibility for it. I do not want to see the sanitisation that is taking place, this re-emergence, like the slug that becomes a beautiful butterfly, without some explanation for it. What has been done to this country is a mortal blow and we must never let anyone in this House forget it. The inheritance of the present and next generations has been swept from under the noses of the children, the adults and the elderly and we have been left bereft. Deputy Browne knows this as well as I do, as he was here and experienced it.

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