Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I note the following sentence from the statement by the Minister, Deputy Howlin, "It became fashionable for a while to decry this country and its potential." I could play the Minister a few tracks from a CD dating from five or six years ago which would include familiar voices from his own benches. We need a fair and broad based recovery. Towns and villages across this country are dying but the Government does not seem to care one iota about them. It is creating deeper and deeper divisions.

No sooner was the ink dry on last October's budget when speculation started about the new departure of a spring statement in which a range of new initiatives and ideas would be unveiled by the Government. I would use all of my remaining time if I outlined the list of carefully orchestrated leaks to the media about the range of benefits that would be unveiled by the Government in the spring statement. We have seen nothing of the sort in this statement. The documents released today contain nothing new.

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