Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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First of all, I strongly defend the parameters of the budget. We have had a difficult balance to strike and I think we have stuck the right balance. People will form their own views of that in just under two weeks' time when they see the budget.

We want to provide help to people where we think it is warranted. We need to spend enough money to do that. At the same time we do not want to start pushing inflation in the wrong direction. It is a difficult tightrope that the Government has to walk in that sense. On the question of taxation, were we to do nothing we would be consigning people, including low- and middle-income workers, to paying a higher proportion of their incomes in tax. It is not just that they would pay more tax in cash, they would pay a higher effective rate of tax. Therefore to characterise it as a tax cut in the way the Deputy does, is I think misleading. For many, even what we do in real terms will not represent a tax cut but will prevent them from having an increase of their tax burden in real terms. That would be-----