Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

He should acknowledge to the hundreds of thousands of families across this State who are struggling to make ends meet, some of whom are in work and some of whom are on welfare, that the Government is responsible for that. Finally, I ask him to reassure us that this Government has not attempted in any cynical way to use the ESRI as part of a strategy to drive down welfare rates in the next budget.

See this speech in context