Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The budget is motivated by electoral strategy. It is introduced by a Government hoping people will forget the way it targeted low and middle income families and how the most vulnerable bore the brunt of the budget adjustment in recent years. It is a budget from a Government that spoke about a democratic revolution and promised ambitious political reform but which has, instead, been the least accountable in the history of the State. It comes from a Government that is clearly motivated by the short term, even if it risks the sustainable recovery of the economy. The words of Tallyrand speaking about the restored Bourbon dynasty after the abdication of Napoleon spring to mind.

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