Charlie McCreevy (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

It is a pity Senator McDowell is not in the Dáil and that the people of Dublin North-Central did not re-elect him. Irrespective of my disagreements with him, I thought he performed exceptionally well as Opposition spokesperson and I said so publicly before he lost his seat.

I did my sums in regard to the €635 I took back in the previous budget. I got the Department of Finance to go back over how much money we had provided to the social insurance fund since 1951 or 1952 as the case may be and it owes us billions if a reasonable rate of interest is added. It would take a long time to get €600 million odd every year and to get back the amount the Exchequer has transferred to the social insurance fund. I regard the €635 million as a small repayment of what the social insurance fund owed the Exchequer.