Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

At the end of his response the Taoiseach said that we have the ability to turn the corner. The Minister for Finance assumes we have already turned the corner, according to his dissertation yesterday.

The budget may or may not contain all the answers to our economic problems but it has the appearance of an honest and credible attempt to meet the country's need, that is, to kick-start the restoration of stability, opportunity and competitiveness. Nevertheless, Deputy Richard Bruton's accusation that the Government has leaned too heavily on a set of tax increases rather than concentrating on cutting the costs of running Government could yet prove correct. In such volatile times, nobody can be certain that the Government has found the complete solution to the crisis in the public finances. Nevertheless we now have a number of things we did not have last week. We have a five-year plan for economic recovery, a strategy to clean up the banks and a firm declaration of intent for public service reform.

We can only hope we will be able to look back on the Supplementary Budget of April 2009 as the first step in our recovery from economic disaster. That was the view of the editorial of the Irish Independent on the budget on 8 April 2009. That editorial set out the pious platitudes, the hopes and aspirations of the Government through the Minister for Finance on that date. All of these criteria have failed in the intervening period. If we were to believe all the Taoiseach has said we should go home and hope for the best.

The budget is one of figures and is not for people. It is a budget of necessity and not of choice. It is a budget of desperation, not of conviction. This a budget for an election day but like St. Augustine being made pure, it is a case of not just yet. A political choice was made by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, backed by the Independent Members, in the hope that the fallout from the budget would pass over and that in 12 to 15 months, or some time within the next 100 weeks, they might have an opportunity to be judged by the people. Just as the Minister is unsure about having turned the corner I am equally sure that when the Government faces the wrath of the electorate in the next 100 weeks it will get its answer in no uncertain terms.

The background to this budget had been well set out and we should not forget why we have arrived at yesterday's decision. We have arrived at it because the three amigos, former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, the Taoiseach, Deputy Brian Cowen, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, ignored all the warnings set out in recent years about the direction in which this country was heading, about the way we were heading down the slippery slope of putting all our eggs in one basket, and that a day of judgment would come followed by a day of necessity to make decisions. The good thing about this budget is that the main Opposition parties, the Fine Gael Party, the Labour Party and to a lesser extent Sinn Féin, now absent, did set out and agree on the broad parameters of the requirement for cuts in current spending of €4 billion.

The point made by the Minister for Finance in his pre-budget outlook was that the advice from the IMF, the OECD, the ESRI and every independent commentator was that it would be far better to deal with the deficit in the public finances by current spending cuts rather than taxation. What did the Minister do? He imposed €6 billion worth of tax on people's pockets last April with a consequential loss of €8,000 million in revenue up to the end of the year. He also got it wrong in respect of VAT which he reversed following persistent pressure from ourselves and others. His projections, and those of the Taoiseach when Minister for Finance, were wrong despite the fact that he had all the evidence from the Central Bank, the Office of the Financial Regulator and the Department of Finance that to proceed down that road was fraught with danger.

This budget neither deals with nor answers the questions of fairness, jobs or competitiveness. The Achilles heel of the Government is not just contained in yesterday's projections but is to do with Anglo Irish Bank. This is the fundamentally weak spot. I do not agree with the Taoiseach that the extent of €4 billion, €5 billion or €6 billion which he will come back looking for next year for recapitalisation of Anglo Irish Bank is a separate matter from actions taken yesterday. This is real money from the pockets of real taxpayers and it is going down a black hole. The problem is that the golden circle is still complete. While people are imprisoned in America we still have no evidence of any prosecution pending here-----

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