David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Dowds for allowing me to share time with him. I welcome the two Fianna Fáil Deputies in the Chamber, which is good to see. They had abandoned the Chamber for most of the evening but they are now back. I might suggest to them that when they speak about budgets and social welfare they could start off by apologising to the people of Ireland for the mess they left the country in when the last government collapsed. They should start every sentence by saying, "We are so sorry for the mess, hardship and misery we caused". That would be a great start and they might have some credibility if they began to criticise what we are trying to do in turning around this awful mess.

Things are improving dramatically, however. There is more traffic on the road, there is more activity and there are signs of an uplift. Our Sinn Féin friends seem to relish words like "disastrous", "crisis" and "misery". Everything for them is "appalling", "shocking" and "terrible".

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