Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

The level of applause would indicate many backbenchers wish there was a regime change.

The truth is this budget represented a very stern test of the leadership of the Minister. It was a test to see if he had the courage to break down the patterns of incompetence and indifference which has surrounded this complacent Government and the vision to embrace real reform and see real change in the way we spend money. This is what the country has been crying out for. The bleak answer today is that he is not willing to face those challenges. He has bottled the challenge; he is all bark and no bite. He cannot see that the reason our public finances are in the diabolical state they are in is the sloppy, self-indulgent and wasteful way this Government has spent money.

The Minister is a back seat passenger in the Department of Finance just as he was a back seat passenger in other Departments before this. He is avoiding the imprint of failure by simply not facing up to the challenges which ought to be addressed. As a result of his behaviour, we have seen that the gains of the Celtic tiger have been frittered away. The tax bonanza has been spent but we do not have a world-class infrastructure, a world-class health service or efficiency in the public sector. The money has been spent but we have not delivered the change for which the country was crying out. We trail every league in service delivery. Whether in infrastructure, health or waiting times, we are at the bottom of the league.

The Minister's reign in the Department of Finance has been characterised by leaving problems to fester until it is too late, when the damage is done and the benefit of action has been impaired. We see that again today. He waited for the housing market to collapse before he addressed the needed reform in stamp duty. As a result of his obstinate refusal to reform that tax, we have seen housing sales diminish month by month to half what they were at the beginning of January this year. He is a great man to have six months after a crash in the housing market.

The same is true of the environment. This Government promised it would reform VRT in 2002 and here we are six years later. It is six years during which 600,000 extra cars went on the road — 600,000 extra cars with more carbon emissions now than six years ago. That is the reality. It is too late to address these issues. The time to address them was much earlier so we would not face huge fines for which we will have to borrow to pay in the year ahead.

The Minister can talk the talk but he does not walk the walk. Prudence and reform are new sound bites he has picked up in the Department of Finance and he delivers them in sombre tones as befits his hoped for new status in Government. The truth is that it is all about sound bites. There is no action to back it up. It is simply not enough to change the rhetoric while perpetuating the bad practices of the past. The public will look back on this budget as one where the opportunity to take real decisions, which would change the way money is spent, was fluffed and the soft option was taken instead.

It is a hit and hope budget — persisting on the same path but hoping for a better outcome this time. However, we know what will happen when that hope is not realised. Ordinary families and small businesses will have to pick up the cost. It will not be the 16 Ministers who have trousered their huge increase in public pay, who are happily insulated in their State cars from any changes to motor tax and who are free from any risk to their pensions while many in the private sector are seeing the collapse in the value of their pensions as we speak.

Under the Minister's stewardship, the high promises trumpeted earlier this year are all gone. Nothing has been done in this budget in respect of tax reform. The prudent surpluses are gone. In terms of Ireland being a debt free country, we are heading in the wrong direction. The 8,000 extra frontline staff are not being delivered. Instead we are seeing obstinate refusal in the face of all evidence to adopt some serious-minded reforms, to stop the big pay increases to senior people in the public service until results are delivered, to demand efficiency and performance from the big spenders, to stop the creeping growth in bureaucracy and to face the flaws in decentralisation which is manifestly failing in so many areas. None of this serious reform has been addressed.

They say that if one gets the reputation for being an early riser, one can lie in bed all day. That could be said of this Government. In the early years, it was alert and ready to face changes. It felt the throb of the economy and it moved to deal with issues and real challenges but that day is long gone.

See this speech in context