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

I make two points in respect of the Deputy's excellent question. The first is that there are inevitably going to be trade-offs between how we respond to legitimate challenges and issues of the past, including those of yesterday, recent years or further back, and how we meet the needs of today, let alone in the context of how we invest in the future. Those trade-offs may not always be visible to the Oireachtas, let alone to our country, but they are there. The most basic example is that in the summer economic statement, the Government accepts a recommendation and agrees on the overall size of the budget for the following year. Within that recommendation, an indication is given regarding how much funding will be available for new policy decisions. If Governments engage in spending programmes to set right or respond to issues from our past, it absolutely will influence the amount of funding that is available to deal with the issues of today and tomorrow. That is not to say that we should not respond to many legitimate matters that we, as an economy and a society, are grappling with; it is simply to say that there always are trade-offs.

That leads me on to my second point regarding how we manage those trade-offs. In seeking to decide the balance between money that we allocate to deal with the issues of the past versus the issues of today and tomorrow, part of our consideration in that regard is whether we are being asked to spend taxpayers' money in respect of issues that were Government policy in the past or were explicit priorities that were legislated for by the Oireachtas. That is really important in then determining how we should allocate today's money against yesterday and tomorrow. The Government that has already made significant allocations to deal with legacy issues - economically, in the context of mica and defective concrete blocks, and, socially, to try to provide some alleviation and recognition of the harm and suffering that was caused in mother and baby homes. In making such decisions, we always have to be aware of the balance that the Deputy suggested.