Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak on the budget because many of the announcements made by Ministers are not made in this House, but in Northern Ireland or in Government Buildings where none of us can go in to hear them. They can brief and tell the media what they want, but we cannot get the opportunity to argue with them. I was glad to see my colleague went to a press briefing to hear the Minister for Education and Science last week, but the Minister did not like it and wanted him removed from the meeting. He had a right to be there as Opposition spokesman.

From 1995 to 1997, Fine Gael was in Government. I have often heard the Minister of State come in here to make announcements and compare that time to the present day. I want to make a simple comparison for him. Fine Gael and Labour handed over Government in 1997 with a surplus, the first time since the foundation of the State the Government ran a surplus.

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