Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I accept that the country has a lot of problems and we have a lot of work still to do as a Government, and there will always be work to do, no matter who is in government, but I do not accept the Deputy's premise that we are doing so badly. This is a country that has full employment. It is a country that has among the highest life expectancies, if not the highest, in the European Union. It is a country that has among the best educational outcomes, with more people going on to further and higher education than ever was the case before. This is a country into which people want to migrate because of the opportunities we offer. It is a country which, thankfully, has low levels of crime relative to other developed countries.

The Deputy mentioned the social transfers as if somehow they just happen. Yes, it is the case that were it not for social transfers in Ireland, there would be many more people living in poverty. Who does the Deputy think does the social transfers? It is the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, in her Department. It is this Government. It is the budget Deputy Pringle votes against every year and the Appropriation Bill he votes against every year that enable those social transfers to happen. That is the point the Deputy seems to be missing. The social transfers are done by this Government in legislation he votes against and they are paid for by an economy this Government has built up.

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