Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)

The chairman is Mr. David Byrne, who gets €50,000 per year. Along with him there is Mr. Kevin Cardiff, who might have just resigned, and Mr. Hugh Cooney, a Fianna Fáil fund-raiser. The idea that the NTMA is independent is utter nonsense. Does the Minister or anyone else in the House agree with the Taoiseach when he says, quite wrongly, that the growth rate this year will be 1.3%? Are we going to allow him to peddle that porkie in the United States when he is selling the Irish story?

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