Joe O'Toole (Independent)

No. As I said here last night, I am prepared to go on the record as honestly as I can in relation to issues. That is the position. As I said to the Tánaiste, if this was Boston, we could do with a little more of it. If we can double or quadruple payments to workers at any stage, I am prepared to consider this whether it comes from Boston, Berlin, Brussels or otherwise.

I have been a constant critic on many issues. All that I ask in regard to business is that the Government does the business and delivers. Many awkward union meetings around the country in the last seven months, and also long before, reached a point – we have all done this in the context of our political parties – where somebody at the back of the hall said: "Can you trust those people to deliver?" In such cases, one has to take one's heart in one's hand and say: "Yes, I trust those people to deliver until such time as they do not." That is the reason I go on the record.