Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister for Finance for his comments about our late colleague, Brian Lenihan, and I want to honour the memory of my predecessor as Fianna Fáil finance spokesperson, former deputy leader of our party and the man who, as Minister for Finance, introduced the last budget one year ago tomorrow. We can all agree that Brian's patriotism and courage in the face of the greatest possible adversity remains an inspiration to all of us as we confront together the country's enormous difficulties.

Today is not about the Government versus the Opposition. All of us have the privilege of being elected Members of Dáil Éireann and it is our duty to put the Irish people ahead of any narrow party political interests. I have no doubt we share the same fundamental objectives for this country - to bring about economic recovery, to improve the quality of life of our citizens and to give them hope during this dark economic period. It is our common purpose to make this country the best it can possibly be.

Today is the day Fine Gael and Labour accept the responsibility that comes with being in power. The Government can no longer hide behind the actions or decisions of the previous Government. When this Government came into office in March, the budget for the year had already been passed for them despite their trenchant opposition to it. Fine Gael and Labour had no major budgetary decisions to make until this week. From now on, they will be judged on the actions of the Government, their political choices and the result they bring for our people. Over the past two days, the Government has made known its political choices. Let us be clear that, difficult as the circumstances were, the Government had choices. It was working within the framework of the EU-IMF deal but, in the words of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, speaking at the end of the last quarterly review by the troika in October, "the troika made it clear that they had no difficulty in substituting one fiscal measure for another with an equal value". Let there be no equivocation on this point. The decisions laid before this House yesterday and today are the decisions of Fine Gael and Labour and nobody else. The EU and IMF did not tell this Government to cut child benefit for third and subsequent children, the EU and IMF did not tell this Government to increase the drug payments scheme threshold to €132 per month for hard-pressed working families, the EU and IMF did not tell this Government to cut the fuel allowance to vulnerable, elderly people by six weeks-----

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