Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ní raibh sé i gceist agam labhairt ar an rún seo, ach bhí sé an-deacair fanacht i mó shuí agus mé ag éisteacht leis an raiméis atá ar bun ag daoine ón Rialtas. Listening to the guff from some Senators on the Government side brought me to my feet. I had not intended to speak in this debate, but there are quite a number of heads in the sand in dealing with the implications of the financial crisis as we see them while out canvassing.

It is important to note that Sinn Féin was the only party in the lead-up to the general election in 2007 which stood back from the melee of voices in Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Labour Party and the Green Party calling for bubble-type policies, including a reduction in stamp duty rates, in order that more people would be able to buy overpriced houses and get themselves into unsustainable debt in the process. It is laughable that Senator Michael Mullins has the audacity to castigate Sinn Féin's economic policies when his party is starting to talk about implementing some of them while in government.

We have also been talking about a financial transaction tax for quite a number of years, which was laughed out of Houses, but all of a sudden it seems to have been put back on the table now the Government has run out of things to tax, after water, houses, septic tanks have been taxed. One cannot go much lower than that.

The Government is very slow to turn around and tax the people -----