John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

We must focus on competitiveness. The world market is becoming more difficult and a wide range of areas, including the cost of all inputs, must be debated regularly in this House. I welcome the Government proposals to concentrate on jobs and export-led growth, which offer the only opportunity we have to get through this recession. We should benchmark State expenditure against expenditure in terms of a job. For example, if a decision was made to spend €300,000, it could be argued that 30 jobs could be supported if that decision was not made. That could be considered in debate.

If a couple earns €70,000 per year, their pension alone is valued at over €1 million, because one must have 17 times that amount to bring in €70,000 a year. Why should the State in this terrible financial crisis subsidise millionaires who have €1 million in their pension?