Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am doing so. Many worthy projects were identified by Senators, some of which are in my own region. The projects include the M29, Limerick Regional Hospital, Ireland West Airport Knock, the Luas cross-city which will soon be opened and the Newlands Cross flyover which was built at a time of economic collapse. All of those things can only be done if there are the building blocks of a sound economy. One cannot have such building blocks if one makes it up as one goes along in some sort of Alice in Wonderland-type fairy tale. He might not be great at the figures. We know he is not great at the figures and he should stay away from them. It is no wonder that a party that can try and suggest that the country can somehow just decide it is going to run around on empty, tell the EU, IMF and the troika to get out, vote against every EU treaty and pretend it is going to be all right on the night does not want to be in government in Northern Ireland, take its seats in Westminster, be in government in this jurisdiction nor be in power in any local authority in the country because that would involve making a decision.

The first decision Sinn Féin had to make in the Northern Ireland Executive was to send the devolved powers with regard to social welfare back to Westminster because it involved making a tough decision that might make it unpopular. We have done the right thing by this country since 1922 and we will continue to do so. The main Opposition party has, by and large, always done what it believes is right. We might disagree with it politically, as we might with the Labour Party, the Green Party and the Independents who come from a variety of backgrounds, but I will not sit here and listen to this type of thing we must also listen to in the other House, where a Senator can stand up and say it is time we rise to the challenge. Why is her party not rising to the challenge?