Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I intend to keep the door open for other sectors and private individuals to participate. The banks have indicated they are willing to discuss with me how this initiative can be successfully advanced. I will be asking other interested parties to also assist in developing an effective model.

Reforming the budgetary process

Last year I indicated that the Government was open to reviewing the budgetary process to encourage a more constructive and relevant examination of how the nation's finances are run.

I also made it plain that any changes would have to allow for the clear right and duty of the Government to direct and manage the budgetary process itself. This Government has no problem in giving an account of its stewardship to this House and to the electorate in due course.

Such accountability can only reasonably take place on the basis of action that has been taken and not on the basis of proposals involving spending yet to happen. It is for the Government to decide and to act and for the Dáil to hold it to account, as provided for in the Constitution.

Having reviewed the matter and studied various relevant contributions from inside the House, the Government has decided that certain proposals should be made to the House.

These proposals would mean that from January 2006, I would meet the Oireachtas Committee on Finance and the Public Service to discuss the economic and fiscal background to this and the next two budgets. The following autumn, my Department would update these three year economic and fiscal projections and publish them in place of the existing economic review and outlook, which deals only with the current year.

From 2007, individual Ministers would publish an annual statement on the outputs and objectives of their Departments and from 2008, the actual outturns. These statements would be presented to the relevant Oireachtas committee along with the Departments' annual Estimates. After these individual examinations, the Oireachtas Committee on Finance and the Public Service would co-ordinate the preparation of a report to the Dáil on the deliberations.

These proposals go a long way to meet the desire on all sides of the House for better debate, better scrutiny and better results from the raising of tax and the spending of public money in the State. I intend to write to the Opposition spokespersons on finance and the party whips inviting them to a more detailed briefing on the principles and issues involved in implementing these reform proposals. These proposals, once bedded down, would lay the ground work for a more unified budget approach in the future.

Conclusion

The budget I have outlined will sustain our economic growth and generate the resources we need to drive on with our key infrastructural programmes and look after the more vulnerable groups in our society. It is a progressive budget. It will help Ireland build a fairer, more enterprising and more innovative society. We are reducing the tax burden, expanding services broadly and following a prudent budgetary policy all at the same time. Many countries would be happy to achieve just one of those goals in any one year.

I believe this budget embodies the active determination of this Government not to rest on Ireland's success but to push ahead so that prosperity too can be a gift that this generation gives to the next. We are continuing to push ahead in the strategically important area of infrastructure so that Ireland can compete in the new economy of a globalised world.

We are pushing ahead with investment in education which has been the oxygen of our economic success. We have taken stock of where we stand within the education environment today. Fourth level Ireland is a robust response on the part of the Government to protect our reputation for graduates of the highest calibre. We intend pursuing excellence, not preserving privilege.

We are pushing ahead with innovative proposals to finance high priorities like health care and social welfare because prosperity is not a collection of statistics, or just a level of GDP. It has to be a condition of life, a better life, for all Irish people. We are building a new environment for the care of our children in a modern and changing society.

We are driving forward in all the major policy areas because innovation is a test we must meet if we are to be faithful to the mandate we have been given and the future we envision. We are pushing ahead because we believe in Ireland, today and tomorrow. This budget advances our belief that the Irish people can continue to achieve extraordinary things if Government works with them and for them.

I commend the budget to the House.

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