Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In the future, the Labour Party will look at the issues on a case-by-case basis and when there is merit in supporting them, we will do so. While recovery has not yet been felt by everybody, there has been a huge amount of progress. It is difficult for Fianna Fáil to acknowledge that it left a ruin. There has been a significant amount of recovery, including unemployment figures showing the number of people out of work fell by more than 25,000 over the past 12 months. The Exchequer figures are ahead of target as people return to work and the tax take is increasing. One can see it in how the Social Insurance Fund is now in surplus.

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