Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister for Finance back to the House. I am sure he was taking the reaction to the budget in the community and on the European scene. I know there is some considerable turmoil outside the House but there has been turmoil here today too. Confusion exists about some of the budget's provisions and I hope the Minister will shed some light on them.

"Health cuts hurt the elderly, the sick and the handicapped" was an election slogan some years ago. It was before the Minister first entered the House so I cannot accuse him of drawing up the slogan. However, he and his colleagues have been the beneficiaries of an electoral advantage gained from policies pursued over the past seven years. One of the Minister's predecessors, Charlie McCreevy, knew before the 2002 general election of the spree in public spending. However, he could not arrest it until after the general election. I remember the pilgrimage to the plinth from the backbenchers on that side of the House to protest at the callousness of the then Minister for Finance as he attempted to haul the public finances into proper kilter. He failed and that is where it all went wrong six years ago. The Government can claim all it likes that these current public finance problems are all part of an international crisis. While it is an added difficulty, these problems originated in this country. Some of the remedies proposed will cause further difficulties.

I have every respect for the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government with responsibility for housing, Deputy Michael Finneran. Any attempt, however, to off-load over-priced housing on to the already hard-pressed consumer will simply be regurgitated in 18 months as negative equity. That is a dangerous route to follow. I accept there are compelling reasons to tackle housing such as the large number of people on local authority housing lists. Over the past several years large numbers of people could have availed of housing but were not facilitated. If they had been, we would not have the bank of closed down building sites as we now have in my constituency and in the Minister's.

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