Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on the budget. What has been set out before us is a raft of piecemeal measures. There is no doubt they are lacking any kind of coherent vision for the direction of our country. The budget lacks ambition and it spreads resources so thinly that it does not make any kind of significant impact on any one area.

The Government had choices in this budget, of course, and it chose to start the unwinding of the universal social charge, following a commitment which the Government gave in the last general election to abolish the universal social charge at a cost of €4 billion. The Government got its answer in the election when people made it very clear to us on the doorsteps that they did not want tax cuts. For the first time in my memory, people were saying, "We do not want tax cuts. Sort out the housing crisis and deal with the problems in the health service". That is what they were telling us to do but, unfortunately, the Government has chosen to ignore that.

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