Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not agree with the Deputy using the language of stealing from future generations. Our approach is to try to keep current and future generations safe and healthy and protect their well-being. This has been an incredibly demanding year in which the pandemic has caused such harm to the country. The Deputy made the case that the harm caused to the country is created by weakness within the health services. What I have seen in the past year is the health services, combined with the very large amount of additional money that was made available to them because they needed it, playing an incredible role in trying to minimise the loss of life and to care for and support those who were most harmed by this disease.

As regards particular measures that I will indicate regarding how we close the gap between taxation and expenditure, today is 20 April. The budget will not be unveiled until October. I have told the committee that the single biggest set of decisions that will lead to the narrowing and even near closure of the gap between what we spend and what we are collecting in tax is that it is to be hoped that when the health emergency lifts, schemes such as the employment wage subsidy scheme, the pandemic unemployment payment and the Covid restrictions support scheme, which are multi-billion euro schemes, will not be needed. That will be the largest piece in the jigsaw for closing the gap between what we are spending and what we are collecting. There will be other decisions that need to be made, budget by budget, regarding carbon pricing and all the other issues that I deal with in every budget and which will close that gap further. The key priority of the next budget will be to get at least 220,000 people back to work. That is the key priority because it is getting the country back to work that will accelerate growth in the economy, increase well-being and improve the national finances.