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

Like everyone else, we will await all the details as they are released Department by Department over the coming days. Many of the measures announced by both Ministers can be traced back to the confidence and supply arrangement entered into prior to the formation of this Government and the drawing up of the programme for Government.

The fact that Fianna Fáil has some role in the passage of the budget will, of course, be used as a reason to attack us. These attacks will be as predictable as night follows day. What is true is that we have not shirked our responsibility to the people who elected us, unlike others. It is no harm to cast our minds back to last February when the people voted in a general election. No sooner had the votes been counted, parties such as Sinn Féin, AAA-PBP, the Labour Party and the Social Democrats all said forming a Government was nothing to do with them, and they proceeded to take a ten week holiday before a Government was formed.

When it became clear we were not going to get the support to form a Government, we recognised our responsibility to ensure the country had a Government and played our part in achieving that.

Those who will stand up here and criticise every single item in this budget need to be reminded that they had the chance to have their say but did not take it. They could not bring themselves to do something positive with the votes they received.  Instead they chose the old reliable, the most comfortable position of saying "no", as they always do to pretty much everything. For too many in this House, accepting responsibility is always the job of somebody else. The bigger picture is that the centre ground of politics is under attack, not just here in Ireland but throughout Europe, and I agree with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, that there are various definitions of "centre ground". When one looks at the alternative, one realises just how vital it is that the centre holds. Most people in Ireland are not on the hard left or extreme right; they are moderate, fair-minded people who want to see their politicians act sensibly and for the common good. In fact, they want those of us with the privilege of being in this House to get on with it. They want to see us work together where we can and to iron out our differences. They want less of the adversarial, over-and-back, tit-for-tat politics.

I have learned a few things in politics. Those who shout the loudest do not always have the most conviction. Those whose policies most easily lend themselves to headlines or sound bites are not always right. Far from it, in fact. When I look at the remainder of the Opposition, I become even more resolute in my view that the centre has to hold. Sinn Féin advocates €1.7 billion of new taxes. At a time of an unprecedented rental crisis, with landlords leaving the market, it wants to increase tax on rental properties. At a time when we cannot recruit consultants for our hospitals, it wants to charge them and others 7% more in income tax. At a time of enormous uncertainty, it wants to increase tax on employers.

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