Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The Minister for Finance has taken the baton from his predecessor, the Taoiseach, Deputy Cowen, and crashed straight into a wall. The more I consider the macro figures, the more I understand why Ministers were whey-faced on their way in and out of Government Buildings during the past three weeks. The position is disastrous. The Government had a choice involving making expenditure cuts, doing something with the borrowing requirement and introducing tax increases. In my opinion, it got the balance wrong and has chosen to raise taxation at every hand's turn by means of direct tax increases, levies, charges or whatever. When the entire thrust of VAT is towards uniformity, I do not know how the Government can justify increasing the rate of VAT to 21.5%. This move is almost impossible to defend.

Deputy McManus reminded people on the opposite side of the House how expensive it has become to live in this country. Most Members on the Government benches cannot remember when they last filled their cars with petrol on a filling station forecourt.

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