Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There was a misunderstanding in the vote this morning and the matter is still the subject of discussion with the Ceann Comhairle's office. We will see how it works out. Lest we forget, it was only in 2008 that the country virtually went bankrupt and it did so because too much was being spent against a reducing revenue flow. Whatever mythology one applies to burning bondholders and so on, the facts of the matter are that when the housing and development industry collapsed, every 10,000 houses built carried a value of €1 billion. When the output of houses went from almost 100,000 to 30,000 - the Deputy can do the sums - about €6 billion was taken from our revenue flow and we were no longer able to afford to pay for the running of the country on the basis on which it had been designed. We should not go back there. Day after day we hear people advocate for more spending on every kind of desirable project which might be popular with the electorate, but we have to think of what happened and might happen again.

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