Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I am glad of this opportunity to speak and I thank my colleague for a few extra minutes. I want first to make some general comments on the budget. I struggle to understand the Government's logic in what it is trying to do in this budget. Surely the primary objective in a budget in a time of real difficulty and crisis is to try to address the cause of that crisis. Surely the primary objective in a budget is to try to address the problem which has led us into this position. Despite the fact that Minister after Minister stands up and makes the direct link between the credit crunch, the banking crisis, world economic woes and the recession in Ireland, other European countries which face the same conditions are not in recession and are certainly not in the kind of debt to which we are signing up this year. We are borrowing €13 billion to stay afloat this year, for a country that spends just over €50 billion per year on current expenditure. The Government is far too expensive and we can no longer afford it. What did the Government do to address that issue? It increased current expenditure by 3.5% and slashed key capital expenditure that could have ensured future prosperity in Ireland in terms of driving innovation and competitiveness and stimulating economic activity. The Government is going to pay for the excess expenditure by taxing people at every turn. Whether one is a parent putting one's child on a school bus, a worker parking at one's place of work, buying petrol or going to hospital, one is charged at every turn.

We have heard a lot of nonsense from the Government that this budget is primarily about protecting the weak, that is, those on low incomes. Can the Government explain how increasing the VAT rate or introducing a 1% levy on all income, no matter how small, except social welfare payments, protects people on low incomes and those who are struggling? How does imposing an air travel tax on families who save up to go on holidays protect families on low incomes?

This is a budget that has no new thinking behind it. It is about a Government bailing itself out for its irresponsible over-spending on the back of a construction boom that could not last forever. Where is the new thinking in this so-called radical budget?

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