Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister and his officials for their courtesy on the number of visits we paid to the Department of Finance recently with regard to the ongoing budgetary process. The information has been useful although it is certainly far from complete. I regard this as a small step to opening the budgetary process and I hope there is substantially more of it in coming years. There is certainly room for a more comprehensive approach to the business.

I suppose we should be grateful because at least the Minister today avoided the reference to patriotism. I am sure he recalls the reference from a couple of years ago when he told youngsters going across the border to Newry or Enniskillen to buy a can of beer that they needed to be patriotic. There was no mention of patriotism when it came to wrecking the economy of the State for a generation.

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