Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Essentially, the answer the Minister has given and his opening sentence, in straightforward English, is, "We have it so we will spend it". That is precisely what he has said here today. "We have it so we will spend it," is the new mantra from Deputy Howlin in the run-up to the general election. I indicated in previous debates the extra €7.3 billion the Minister is pumping into the Exchequer over the past 13 months, between last year's Supplementary Estimates, this year's Supplementary Estimates, and the extra funding in budget 2015 that he did not expect a month before the 2015 budget, to try and win the next election. The Minister concluded by saying that they have extra revenue so they can spend it.

I am surprised that this Government has not learnt any lesson from the past. Some might be critical of that policy on previous occasions, but after what we have been through, for this Government to come in here today and say, "We have it so we will spend it" is reckless and shows the Government has learnt nothing.

See this speech in context