Alex White (Labour)

Professor Honohan stated in his report that Government policy clearly played a central role in contributing to the crisis. He said that macro-economic and budgetary policies contributed significantly to the economic overheating, relying to a clearly unsustainable extent on the construction sector and other transient sources for Government revenue and encouraging the property boom via various incentives geared at the construction sector. When Professor Honohan stated: "This helped create a climate of public opinion which was led to believe that the party could last forever", I would describe that as another way of stating something I strongly believe, which is that the Minister and the Taoiseach did blow the boom. There is no question that they blew the boom.

It is extraordinary for the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach the other day to say that the Taoiseach accepts full responsibility. There are consequences in accepting responsibility.