Will the Taoiseach justify to the House and country the decision to spend in excess of €50 million on the purchase of a new Government jet at a time of great economic uncertainty and austerity? It is a time when primary schools are being run down, accident and emergency wards are dilapidated, the extra gardaí promised to fight crime have not arrived, many carers are struggling to cope and our cities are grinding to a halt. Every week brings new killings, assaults and thefts and new revelations about our crumbling health service, and confirms that the nation was conned last May.
Perhaps the Taoiseach thinks that was worth it because he and the Government can forget about betraying the people while sitting in leather-lined seats and gilded jacuzzis at 30,000 feet. Up there, he will not have to worry about rat-infested school buildings, sick people without hospital beds or the scandal of homelessness which blights our towns and cities. This happens while the Taoiseach and Government preach austerity to the rest of us. Is the nation to tighten its belt while the Government wraps a €50 million Charvet shirt around itself?