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

The Minister published expenditure ceilings this time last year for a three-year period and he blew them out of the water on budget day. We were told they were sacrosanct. He has now increased them by €1.6 billion. He has increased the expenditure ceilings by a quick announcement on budget day.

The Minister states he had an extra €2.2 billion in tax revenue and that almost €2 billion of it will go on additional expenditure. The logic is that if one of the big multinationals had thrown in an extra €1 billion or €2 billion in corporation tax this year, the Minister would have spent most of that also, and still maintain the deficit, on increasing underline, base expenditure for this year and next year going forward. The Minister is making the capital mistake of increasing baseline expenditure on the basis of once-off tax receipts that were received this year that he knows he cannot guarantee will happen in subsequent years, and he is back to the mantra, "We have it so we will spend it". If that is the way Deputy Howlin wants to win the election, that is his call.

I note the Minister has not given us the figure for the 13 Supplementary Estimates even though they are published on the Order Paper. Health, Social Protection and Environment, Community and Local Government are not in the list. I will bet, at this stage, that the Minister knows but is refusing to tell us because I asked him for the figures by Department and he has not given them.

See this speech in context