Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I wish to share time with Deputy Jack Wall.

It is difficult to reply to this budget because it is a moving target. The remarks of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, who introduced it, ought to be mentioned as a starting point. He said that it was "no less than a call to patriotic action". If ever there was a more inappropriate call to the flag, I cannot recall it. To summon in this cavalier fashion people who paid their taxes all their working lives and ask them to surrender their medical cards in the name of patriotic action was a colossal act of misjudgment. The people affected have done their patriotic duty by the State in good times and bad. Now the Government repays them by taking away the peace of mind provided by the medical card in their twilight years. It will not be forgotten for a long time that the response of every man and woman of the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government to the exhortation of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, was to rise in their seats to applaud this callous misjudgment.

Prominent among them were the two Green Party Ministers who boasted before and after publication of the Budget Statement of their input into the decision making and of how proud they were of solidarity in Government. However, after Deputy Joe Behan jumped ship and the revolt by the Fianna Fáil backbenchers began, the Green Party tried to get in on the act. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, told RTE last Sunday that he was happy to wait and see what solution the Taoiseach would come up with before the Green Party would give it their blessing. He sounded like the Queen at Balmoral, summoning her Prime Minister for a scolding. The Taoiseach might be forgiven if he gave the Minister, Deputy Gormley, a black eye.

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