Eugene Regan (Fine Gael)

It should have been at the standard time so that these issues could have been fully thought through and also that the November Exchequer returns would have been available. Then we would have had a budget that was based on proper assumptions and was properly thought through.

I would ask the Leader, as distinct from the Deputy Leader, whether he would agree that it was a fatal error to try to pull this political stroke and that it is damaging, not just to the Fianna Fáil Party and the other Government parties, but to the proper management of the economy.