Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

—but Fr. Healy's focus does not take sufficient account of the need to integrate maximising economic progress with social cohesion.

If one concentrates exclusively on the social end of the scale, one may lose sight of the wood for the trees. A former head of the Combat Poverty Agency expressed some nostalgia for 1986, a year of high unemployment, high debt and poor economic conditions. One might say that everybody was equally poor and perhaps the situation had an odd attraction from that perspective. Obviously, when an economy has been growing, more active redistribution is needed.

In general terms, a feature of the budget has been to cut down on some of the tax shelters and tax breaks. It has been a great achievement to bring forward the dates of most social welfare increases to the beginning of the year, rather than, as in the past, having them apply from the following June, September, or even November. However, the increase for child benefit has yet to be brought forward to January. Great credit is due to the Minister and her predecessor for bringing forward increases and maintaining the full 100% Christmas bonus. I recall, from my former role as an adviser to the Government, arguments about the latter. The cutback in that measure, which dates from the mid 1980s, continued far longer than it should.