Eugene Regan (Fine Gael)

The Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, said in October last year: "We will achieve a return to growth in the early part of next year; that is why I say we have turned the corner." When speaking in the Dáil in July of this year, he said:

Our plan is working. It has brought this economy out of recession. The worst is over. Economic activity in this country is turning the corner.

Those types of statements, which have been proven so wrong, are the reason we need proper scrutiny of the information, proposals and figures coming from Government. We have no basis for having confidence in the Government's projections. I must emphasise that it is in the Government's interests to be more forthright in relation to that information.