John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

That is why we have a low rate of unemployment and 2 million people in work in the economy. Despite what the Deputy might say about people's purchasing power, most if not all surveys on it indicate that while our costs are higher our real purchasing power is greater than in most equivalent countries across Europe. The Deputy might not like to recognise that, but those are the facts.

Often in politics we get up here and speak about matters and it is a long time before we see the real change. It was a little more than a year ago when Deputy Cowen delivered his first budget, referring to a review of the various tax relief schemes. That review formed a substantial part of the last budget and the current Finance Bill. He has gone into numerous parts, and if I have time, I will examine some of them. Changes have been made, and various people on the Opposition benches will say that because we have made changes, something was inherently wrong. I do not agree with that at all.

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