Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

I support this amendment. Will the Minister indicate the dates on which he expects to receive the report of the Commission on Taxation and the completed report of the McCarthy group? Will he indicate whether he intends to publish these documents before the Government makes policy decisions in regard to their content? Will he publish the commission's report without comment and wait until the budget for any substantive elaboration of the Government position or will he make some response to the report indicating the Government's reaction to different elements of it? Will we see publication of the report of the McCarthy group after the Estimates are published or will we see the McCarthy deliberations ahead of the Estimates because it would make a big difference to the sort of debate which would take place?

The Government saying these issues can be debated but then sitting on its hands, not engaging in any debate and saying these are all budgetary matters, is not helpful or serious. If we want engagement on the 2010 budget, the Government must set out options and give some Government-backed analysis of the implications of those options in order that the House can reach some sort of assessment. The habit in which the Minister and his predecessors have indulged of asking the Opposition to state everything it would like to see done and saying nothing is supposed to be consultation and an exchange of views. However, one does not need to be very long around this House to know it is nonsense and purely a political ploy by Ministers to get us to come up with some hardship clause about which they will hound us forever more but which they will not implement. If we are to have more honest engagement about the choices, the Government cannot sit on its hands, say nothing and just listen.

It will be interesting to hear the order of publication and the nature of debates in which the Minister believes are worth engaging, if any.

See this speech in context