Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)

-----and vote for the deal that unified the debt, the consequences of which we are dealing with now. The simple question is where would Sinn Féin get the money from. They should answer that question. If they could answer that question perhaps it would lend greater credibility and clarity regarding an alternative route for our State.

Day after day, Sinn Féin Deputies come in here and say they are against cuts in public services, but they are also against any measures to fund increased tax revenue coming into the State to fund the same public services. In last year's general election, Sinn Féin campaigned on a platform of not dealing with the troika. Sinn Féin said it did not want the troika's money and would find another way of doing it, while exiting their arrangement. Where has that rhetoric gone over the last year? Will we hear what they are about to say now? Sinn Féin has performed the single biggest U-turn of any party in the Dáil since the last election. The claim it is putting before the public is a continuation of that political dishonesty that could lead to such damage and difficulty for our country after the searing convulsions we have already been through.

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