Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I thank both Deputies for their submissions but they have not alluded to the huge amount of documentation provided to them which accompanied the budget on budget day. First, if they look at the main features of the budget, there were the changes in income tax. There was a full analysis of the income impact on various families, and that was modelled over 20 pages in the budget booklet. Second, there was the major changes in farm taxation and the analysis done, which led us to the point of deciding what changes to make, was published in the budget.

Another big section of the budget was the changes in corporation tax, particularly the double Irish, but also the measures introduced to enhance the IDA package to attract additional foreign direct investment to Ireland. Huge amounts of data, studies and consultative papers were published to give Deputies all the information I had in respect of that.

On top of that, social welfare changes are always the big aspect of the budget. Traditionally, the Minister for Social Protection uses the ESRI SWITCH model to publish on the impacts of the social welfare announcements in the budget, and she will be doing that in the coming months.

While the Deputies are making some legitimate points about aspects of budgetary policy, by and large the position has improved. They have got an enormous amount of back-up documentation and analysis with this budget on the main issues, which were the policy objectives of the budget.