James Bannon (Fine Gael)

This is something that the Minister should consider.

This latest cutback is a dreadful blow to the people, especially those who voted for Fianna Fáil or the Progressive Democrats at the last general election. Never before in Irish political history has there been as much mistrust of a Government by the people as there is now. We have had bad times – Taoisigh suffering from loss of memory, corrupt Taoisigh, sacked Ministers, mistrusted Ministers, corrupt Ministers – but we have never witnessed lies and whitewash on the scale dished out to the electorate last May.