Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is not an easy budget - I will be the first to say that and there is no point pretending otherwise. After seven years of austerity some of these measures are very difficult. This country has gone through an extraordinary journey during those years. Among other things, we have had to deal with pension levies, the Croke Park and Haddington Road agreements, promissory notes, Anglo Irish Bank, NAMA and mortgage arrears. Not too long ago there were rocketing interest rates on our bond yields. In 2007, we never thought we would have such problems. Greedily, we thought growth would continue unabated, our banks would stay healthy and consumers could continue to spend, based on cheap credit. This greed, espoused by Fianna Fáil, of which party Deputy McGrath was a member, the Progressive Democrats and, dare I say, certain other Independents, produced a recipe for complete and utter disaster.

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