Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

-----and address that issue again. The monthly year on year returns from excise on alcohol are falling because of the law of diminishing returns. I will not be two-faced about diesel. My party proposed to increase excise on diesel by more than the Government proposed. However ours was part of an overall package that did not hammer middle-class families through massive increases in taxation, which the Government has done here. That is horrendous. This is a tax and spend budget from the 1980s. The Government is taking €4,000 from the pockets of the average family and €2,500 from the average working person. It is recreating all those problems we had in the 1980s between PAYE workers who pay all the tax and others who can avoid it, and between those who benefit from welfare payments and those who do not.

Deputy Gilmore asked about the influence of the Greens in this budget. It is clear that the PDs' influence is also missing from this budget because when it formed part of this Government it kept taxes down. The Government is returning to tax and spend socialism and will tax people out of their jobs and onto the dole queues. The mistakes the Government has made are huge. I expect we will have another mini budget in a few months time and if not we will be faced with a much greater economic crisis as a consequence of this budget.

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