Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I am delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to this debate. Like other Deputies, I could speak for much longer than ten minutes. I would not lose inspiration after several hours given the importance of the issue before us.

My response to this budget was not joyous given that it represents the third attempt since December to solve our economic woes. I do not address my remarks specifically at the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Michael Finneran, who is sitting opposite because, like all Members of this House, he is a decent individual. Unfortunately, however, the issues we have been raising for the past six years were ignored. We were ridiculed and told that we did not know what we talking about. The experts should put their hands up and admit they were wrong to ridicule us.

The public is about to be severely punished for eight years of mismanagement. It has never happened previously in the history of this State that a succession of punishment beatings were meted out on the public. They did not cause the problem, however. The Government may claim it is part of a partnership but management is supposed to manage. It is like the old story of management blaming unions because the show went off the rails. Unions have a job to do but management has ultimate responsibility for taking decisions. Unfortunately, in this case, the management wilted. This budget comes hot on the heels of its predecessor and the public has not yet recovered from the last punishment beating. People have just begun to see the impact of the last intrusion on their wage packets.

I do not think the Government fully appreciates the grave danger we face that the economy will come to a total halt. It is not possible to generate industrial and commercial activity by taking so much money out of the economy. It was agreed that tough decisions had to be taken but a competition seems to be under way on who can generate the most pain. Adlai Stevenson used the phrase "no gain without pain" but the only gain in this budget is pain. What is even worse is that we have nothing in the pipeline except more of the same.

I have serious doubts about the future. We may face another budget in three months time in a further attempt to put the economy back on the rails. We will be much worse off by that stage. I contest the notion that the budget announced by the Minister for Finance will work because similar proposals have failed everywhere else.

Those who think our economic problems can be solved without first dealing with our empty housing stock are codding themselves. The budget proposes to deal with this issue gently at some time in the future. The Tánaiste made an interesting remark on today's Order of Business in response to an Opposition suggestion that the Government intended to cushion the impact on those who used to frequent the tent. She claimed that the reverse was the case because bank share prices have fallen. That argument does not stand up to scrutiny.

The Government is pushing different buttons and hoping for a result. It looks at the board and asks us to agree that the colours are bright and wonderful but it is causing huge pain and the public are scared that worse will come next year.

This crisis presents opportunities for those who have for many years nurtured hate lists. We see this in the proposed abolition of child benefit. This has been on the agenda for years but it is extraordinary that it is being introduced at a time when most other European countries have taken measures to encourage population regeneration. The women of Ireland are being punished for having children on the grounds that millionaires' wives should not receive child benefit. At our current rate of progress, we will soon have very few millionaires left. Child benefit was intended as a recognition of the work done by mothers in rearing children. I am totally opposed to any attempt to interfere with the payment because of the negative social impacts and the implications for household budgets. It is an anti-family proposal and an exercise in bureaucratic bookkeeping.

Another proposal coming down the tracks - or down the tubes, as the case may be - is the Green Party's wish list idea for a carbon tax. It is being introduced in the current climate as a necessary evil. We are told we must have this carbon tax because we need money. We are also told that it will be hugely beneficial in dealing with the carbon footprint, but that is rubbish. The tax has been introduced in other jurisdictions, yet the carbon footprint has not disappeared and nothing has changed. It just meant that a means was found, under another guise, to extract taxes from the unfortunate motoring community. If we continue along this route it will not be necessary to introduce incentives to put people on foot or on bikes. They will be reduced to that anyway because they will have no other means of transport. This proposal is not part and parcel of what is required at the present time.

We have had a number of years of the Celtic tiger and we commonly hear that we were all responsible, but were we? Were all the people of this country responsible? Some people never benefited from the Celtic tiger, which has come and gone.

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