Michael D'Arcy (Fine Gael)

As I have said previously in this House, honesty is one of the things that is badly required in this country. It is disturbing that on a number of occasions, people have stood up in the Seanad and Dáil Chambers to try to rewrite history. It has always been the case that the positions are taken before advances are made and one moves on. The position that one initially took does not change, however. As time moves on, people claim they did not quite take the position attributed to them. My clear memory is that the original memorandum of understanding provided for the sale of State assets. An exact figure might not have been set out, but there was a clear and explicit understanding in the memorandum that assets would be sold and the funds used to pay off debt.