Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I think I have made my point. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, who is a member of the Cabinet, and her Department have primary responsibility for policies in the area raised by the Deputy. I cannot solve everything through the tax code. I can make a contribution through the tax code, but the lead role must be taken by the Minister with responsibility for child care. It is clear from what she has published that she is not moving towards tax-based solutions to this problem. We all know that child care is extraordinarily expensive and unaffordable for some people. There is a kind of built-in assumption in the claims about indexation that everybody is happy with the social welfare and tax codes and that these do not need to be reformed. I do not agree that we have the perfect mechanism and that all we need to do is index and let it off. Many reforms to the social welfare code could be introduced.

There are also many reforms that could be introduced to the tax code. Indexation removes flexibility from policy makers to some degree where they are of a mind to reform particular codes. This is not a simple debate.

Considerable progress has been made in moving towards a sustainable economy. The economy is growing strongly and it is doing so in a sustainable way. One of the key economic issues around sustainability, albeit perhaps not one that featured in the Deputy's catalogue of reference points, is to have an economy that is not dependent on one or two sectors. The growth figures for the past several quarters show the economy is growing across all 12 key economic sectors, which was not the case during the Celtic tiger when growth was built on one particular sector. This is fundamental to sustainability. With regard to sustainability in reference to climate change, it is the same word but a different debate.

It is incorrect to state there is no consciousness of building a sustainable economy or that this Government and its predecessor have not been building a sustainable economy. All the evidence shows that they have been doing so. We hope to put another few blocks on the wall in this budget to further reduce risk and ensure that what we are doing can resist shocks and is sustainable.