Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I have often written that the Minister, Deputy McCreevy, is the worst Minister for Finance ever, even though he has a well organised Department and his officials read all the newspapers, including those published only in Cork. He took wrong decisions when he had choices to make. He did not invest in infrastructure when he had the opportunity and, instead, reduced the national debt. An appalling infrastructure deficit has developed. According to the Minister, Ireland is at the upper end of the scale in terms of infrastructure investment in Europe, which confirms this lack of development. He is comparing the country to others that developed their infrastructures over 20 years, yet this is considered to be idealistic nonsense. We have fallen so far behind, we do not believe we can develop such an infrastructure.