Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy, and his officials to the House. I warmly welcome the Development Banks Bill 2005. I do not think Senator John Paul Phelan should doubt that there was mass poverty in this country historically. It was a very serious problem 40 or 50 years ago. We did not worry about relative poverty in those days because it was a question of absolute poverty.