Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

The point I am making is that our response this time, as a people and as a country, will be different for a number of reasons. We are more confident, more capable and have more resources and better infrastructure to allow us face a difficult economic climate if it exists. I believe the budget indicates a steering of the economy in the right direction and indicates a response that is appropriate. The budget indicates that the new Government is setting a different and an appropriate course for the economic conditions that exist, which are different from those we faced during the past ten or 15 years.

I commend the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, on the course he is taking and the broad direction he is setting the economy and our society in this budget. It fulfils three policy objectives he set out in a recent Indecon speech on the overall direction of the economy. He said at that time that our policy response was in a ten-year horizon, which is the appropriate time for us to look at it, to get productivity, equity and the environment working together. They are three policy goals which complement each other. This budget does that. When one looks in a strategic ten-year sense at the direction it is taking, it achieves all three objectives.

The increased investment in capital expenditure, up to 12% growth, which by any standard on a high base is a significant commitment to our productivity agenda. That capital deepening — the words used by the Minister, Deputy Cowen, in his speech — is absolutely appropriate as it allows us to trade through a difficult economic period. In a sense one could take the word "productivity" and substitute the word "efficiency". Energy efficiency will be one of the main areas in which we can achieve productivity. This approach is the right way to proceed.

The budget shows concern for equity and that in any difficult economic times we cannot leave the most vulnerable behind. I support and commend the fact that half of the additional funding that was available went to pensioners, those in receipt of social welfare and those who were not able to trade their way out of difficult economic times. That is an example of equity that the Green Party is pleased to support and to deliver in government. This budget shows, for the first time, an important commitment to the environment. It is a historic start where green policies that have been espoused for 25 years by my party are being put into action. It is a historic occasion where there is a clear indication of a strategic change of direction by the State to steer the country in a greener direction. Changes in the motor taxation and VRT system, of the nature we have introduced——

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