Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

All I hear from Fianna Fáil Members is what they are against. I know they have much to be silent about concerning what they did over the past 12 years in ruining the country. A debate on the budget could go in tandem with some reflection on how we have progressed with the EU-IMF deal. We need to debate the financial options available to us.

As for my friends in the Sinn Féin Party who are wondering whether they would get more speaking time on the budget if they wrote to the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, I must remind them that its party and its paramilitary wing was in close contact with the German Government in the 1940s. Perhaps that level of co-operation might be a wise move.