Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

That party has been in Government for the majority of the past generation and it cannot be absolved from the policies it pursued. Now it is pitting the public and private sectors, husbands and wives or brothers and sisters, against one another. Untold tension has been caused in households by the budgetary policies of the Fianna Fáil Party. We must see leadership if we are to make progress but, sadly, we have seen nothing from the Government but contempt for this House, the Opposition and, most important, the ordinary citizen.