Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegations and apologise for my late arrival. I was here earlier but had to leave to attend to other business.

All of us who are Government Deputies have the difficult job of arriving at a budget which will not please anyone but which we need to ensure is as fair as possible, and that is important. In that regard, I ask the Chair if there is any way in which we can influence the Minister in terms of how he handles his budget. While I would like our adjustments to be done as much through taxation as possible, it would be totally unrealistic to suggest there will be no cuts to services. Such cuts will mainly affect the three big spending Departments, namely, Health, Social Protection and Education. We must try to implement cuts in a way that has the least negative impact. I do not know if the Minister is willing to talk to this committee between now and the budget.