Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I would not boast about that since that happened because more people were at work. Of course we welcome that fact. The impetus for the growth in employment started before the previous Government came into office. Given the práiseach it made of the public finances over the last year, I suspect that impetus will grind to a halt quite rapidly because of its inability to realise that society and the economy are not the same thing. That is the fundamental problem this Government has had for the past six years, that is, that it cannot understand that there is a difference between social development and economic growth. It has put all its eggs in the basket of economic growth and has consistently set itself the task of redistributing wealth upwards in the direction of those who are most well off in our society.