Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

Of course, we have our own weaknesses. An Opposition Senator stated Fianna Fáil is always saying it was international rather than domestic factors that caused our very sharp adjustment and descent into recession. I do not agree with this view. I am one of a number of colleagues, including the Taoiseach, who have openly acknowledged the mistakes we made and who contend that, now that we have the benefit of hindsight, we should have slowed down the expansion of the property market earlier than we did. There is no doubt we should have curtailed at an earlier stage some of the reliefs we curtailed in the last budget and the one before it. However, when this issue was raised at the time in question, there was a great deal of opinion, from Government and Opposition sources and from some well-respected international and domestic companies, to the effect that we should not do so and that we should pile on more incentives. That is the context and we need to be balanced about it. It is not just that the Government made mistakes.