Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

They have got used to lying in in the morning, bingeing on junk food and not exercising. The result is what we see today. At the slightest hint of deterioration in the economy, we see the public finances plunge from a €4 billion surplus to a €2 billion deficit. That is some achievement for a Minister — to have squandered all that money and to have so little to show for it. It is shoddy spending habits.

Under the guise of this debt fuelled tax bonanza, the Government has thrived. We have seen Government spending grow by an alarming six percentage points of GNP. That is three percentage points extra on income tax and three percentage points extra on VAT. That is the reality of the extra costs this Government has loaded on in the space of seven years. Now the property boom bonanza is gone, those realities will come home to roost. Those tax bills will have to be met and that is why we have not seen proper indexation of the tax code today and no proper provision for tax reform which was trumpeted from the hill tops a few months ago. That money has been spent and there is little to show for it.

The changed economy has brought new rhetoric. We hear this bleating about productivity, reform and equity. However, it is like listening to a chain smoker talking about the threats and dangers of smoking. He has known it for years but he has done nothing about it in the past and is doing nothing about it today. There is no reform in this budget and there is no willingness to face up to the changes we need to make to get efficiency and delivery at the frontline from the huge budgets that have been built up. It is a hit and hope budget and it is simply not sustainable.

Today's budget presents us with €3.9 billion extra in spending and €1.6 billion extra in tax. In any man's language that is spending more than double the revenue coming in. That is not sustainable. One cannot go on plugging the hole by borrowing, as the Government plans to do this year. This time last year we were told we would have a surplus of €1.8 billion in 2008 and yet the Minister told us today we would have a deficit of that amount.

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