Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In addition, there has been confirmation from the European Commission that Ireland again will record strong growth this year. These all are tangible signs of progress that will translate into new jobs for workers and into things getting that little bit easier for families who have struggled so much since Fianna Fáil's crash of 2008. This makes it all the more worrying now that the new coalition threatens to fritter away much of the progress. Labour's record in Government over the past five years is not without its blemishes. I would be the first to admit we probably ruled too much by the head and not enough by the heart at times, yet we always placed the interests of people ahead of any narrow political interests and, yes, we paid a high political price for that.

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