Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to debate this issue in the House. I am not sure whether Deputy McLellan was making her maiden speech, but I listened intently to what she said and congratulate her on her speech. She referred to the democratic programme in the first Dáil. She was right to highlight the aspirations of that democratic programme. However, she did not refer to another inimical part of the programme, which established, particularly by the then Minister for Finance, the view that we must have balanced budgets. It suggested that the only way Ireland could express its independence in that fledgling Government and first Dáil was through the ambition that the country could stand on its own, have balanced budgets and was prepared to pay its way in the world and would not kick down to another generation the appalling legacy of previous British rule at that time, or in the case of our generation, that Fianna Fáil legacy. We make no apologies for our Government in addressing that issue today.

Deputy Ó Caoláin referred to the consensus for cuts. In Northern Ireland, where Sinn Féin is in government, it has had no difficulty in signing up to and subscribing to a budget which, effectively, introduces cuts across many key public services.

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