Shane Ross (Independent)

There is no doubt about it. I do not wish to just take the anti-Government view because that is not my job here but it has been quoted on this side time and again, and already today, that all the figures indicate we are worse off and that Ireland is bottom of the league. We must ask why we are bottom of the league and we will not get any solutions by people getting up in this House and saying the position is bad in Germany and Spain. It is bad in Germany and Spain but it is worse here because the damage is self-inflicted here. It is not time for a blame game. Stale politics have been introduced in this House, and it has been done already, when people just knock the Government, say it did wrong in the past and it ought to apologise. It ought to apologise. It ought to come forward with solutions. It should say we are worse off and set out what it intends to do.

It is incumbent not just on the Government but the Opposition and ourselves to come together, produce solutions and not simply knock what has happened in the past, deplorable as it is, because the position, according to the ESRI, is too serious for that.