Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the many Deputies who made their considered and useful contributions to the debate yesterday evening and today and I look forward to a constructive discussion on Committee Stage. I will try, as far as possible in the time available to me, to address the points raised by the Deputies yesterday and today. Of course, there will be a further opportunity on Committee Stage to deal in greater detail with issues covered by the Bill.

l refer to some of the more general issues raised, especially by Deputies Bruton and Burton. It was argued by some that the Bill does not contain a vision. Deputy Higgins suggested the Bill was unimaginative while Deputy Enright suggested it was unambitious, but I disagree. The Bill contains significant measures that will enable Ireland to build on its existing strengths as an economy. These measures, when taken together with our budgetary strategy, will protect existing jobs and create additional ones. They will support export-led growth in services and goods, the best way of maintaining and enhancing our international competitiveness, which I highlighted on 9 December as a key focus of the budget this year. Unless we sharpen our competitive edge, we will not be unable to return to the tried and tested strategy of export-led growth.

Some Opposition Deputies described the Bill as a housekeeping exercise devoid of ideas to deal with the challenges facing us at present. Such a view contrasts sharply with the commentary from the industries and enterprises on which we will rely to create well-paid jobs in the economy as we return to growth. It was suggested the Bill lacked focus and placed an unfair burden on taxpayers. This, after all, was a budget that contained no personal tax increases and some reductions in consumption taxes. The Opposition must lack focus or must be unable to see the big picture if this was not evident from the budget.

The 2010 budget and the Finance Bill build on the work that started in budget 2009. We have made significant progress in stabilising the public finances. The adjustments involved very hard decisions and I am aware of their impact on citizens, but they were necessary to ensure the very financial survival of the country. Those decisive actions have enabled us to stabilise the deficit and have led to a reduction in the cost of borrowing by the State.

In the run up to the budget, I made it clear that we could not tax our way out of our difficulties. My sense was the main Opposition party agreed with this view. Accordingly, the budget focused on expenditure and did not increase the burden of income tax. That approach also informed the development of the Finance Bill. Deputies will be aware that there are no tax increases in its provisions, apart from a number of measures aimed to ensure high earners pay their fair share and I make no apology for including these measures.

In her contribution to the debate, Deputy Burton moved quite a distance from the subject to engage in a discussion about the banks and the builders. Loth though I am to follow her departure from the subject of the debate, I wish to deal with the accusation that I misled the House about the attitude of the IMF, International Monetary Fund, to NAMA. Deputy Burton was relying on a newspaper report of last Monday. The note on which the report was based contains a ringing endorsement of NAMA by the IMF. In fact, it states that "the IMF would have been encouraging the adoption of a NAMA-type initiative even if the Minister for Finance had not already announced it".

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