Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

All three of the worst decades in the country's economic history since independence were brought about by horrendous political decisions. The economic war in the 1930s was an horrendous decision by de Valera because it immediately brought to an end our classic economic relationship with Britain. It took us 15 years and the great skills of Lemass and others to extricate ourselves from that no-win situation.