John Carty (Fianna Fail)

The number of redundancies reduced by 24,000 in 2010. Senator Phelan has argued that the people have left but I will wait to hear his comments on where they have gone. There are still many people - some 1.8 million - employed in the country, which is a fact we should not forget. We should not all the time cry the poor mouth and poverty as there are many positive aspects to this country. We should be praising those aspects rather than running down the country. Our competitiveness has improved significantly in 2010.