John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I am not saying that. I am making the point — and I have suggested this to my parliamentary party — that the necessity for the Minister for Finance to come into the House and discuss so many major issues within an hour and a half is something we should all think about. Years ago, as I know from running a pub, the big fear at the time of the budget was that the local publican would go out and stock up in advance of budget day to make sure he had enough beer, fags and spirits in the house for the period between the budget and later on. The issues are now so huge that in the run-up to the budget it would be fair for the House to discuss the different aspects of a possible budget strategy to obtain Members' feelings on various matters. Nowadays it is not about how much stock one has in at 12 o'clock on the night before the budget announcement; it is far more important for us all to realise that we are dealing with a slowdown in the economy and, more importantly, trying to support a massive health expenditure of something like €16 billion. The difference between this recession and the previous one is that funding in health has increased. The last time out, it was a decrease.

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