James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Then the party ran away and left no money in the coffers to sustain them. It is all very well to allude to services being put in place that were put in place with money the party knew it would not have, did not have and could not sustain, and then try to blame others who come after who try to fix the economy for all the ills in the service.

This group is a very important one. I believe it will deliver a menu of options for Government that will be well costed, well analysed and will be able to show in a very real way how we can get the best outcomes for children and support their families, rather than just a gut reaction of putting more money here and more money there and finding subsequently the law of unintended consequences has arisen all over the place and we do not get the results we want.

In terms of the child benefit issue raised by Deputy Troy, child benefit did increase in the previous budget.

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