Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To put it in context, Deputy Boyd Barrett spoke earlier about wealth redistribution. In 2011, when the income tax take was €11 billion, the social protection budget the then Minister, Deputy Burton, was handling was €21 billion. That was massive wealth distribution and we did not have the money. We had to borrow it. While Deputy Boyd Barrett is quick to talk about what the banks cost over the period of the crisis, nobody wants to hear that we had to borrow €15 billion or €16 billion a year for ten years in order that we could keep the rates of old age pension and children's allowance, and those about whom the Deputy is talking, the teachers and the public servants, at the rates they were at during that era.

Deputy Boyd Barrett states he does not care about the person earning €150,000 or €200,000-----

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