Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Could somebody please clarify how Fianna Fáil, which says it is the champion of abolishing water charges, has signed up to a budget that does not provide a penny to abolish water charges?

Cífimid go bhfuil laghdú de 9% de bhuiséad na Gaeilge, na Gaeltachta agus na n-oileán. Tá dearmad déanta ar an Ghaeilge arís. As bhuiséad de €1.3 bhilliún, ní raibh ach mórán os cionn de €4 mhilliún á lorg ag Conradh na Gaeilge ar son Fhoras na Gaeilge agus Údarás na Gaeltachta le haghaidh an clár infheistíochta a sheachadadh mar a bhí molta ag os cionn 80 eagraíochtaí Gaeilge agus Gaeltachta. Éileamh cothrom is measartha a bhí ann agus é á teastáil ó ghrúpaí atá lárnach dár tsochaí agus dár gcultúr, ach tugtar neamhaird orthu arís sa bhuiséad seo. It should have been provided and it should still be provided in respect of the proposals to go through the Dáil as we deal with the finance Bill.

We were all told that it would be different this time. We have the warnings from the Central Bank, the Fiscal Council, European Union and so on but the conservative old-school politicians all know better. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael know better; they think we can go back to the way things were and that, this time, it will be different, but it is not different. It is the same old politics, and it is the same old politics that failed us before. This year, we have a clearer choice than ever before. We have a choice between a policy that invests and strengthens or a policy that returns to the same old ways.

Maybe things will proceed satisfactorily for a while, and more and more tax breaks will pop up. They will be temporary at first and then permanent, and spending will be willy-nilly, short-term and without any plan. Eventually, when the next challenge comes, the whole economy and country will be left exposed. The health, education and social systems will stagger on with no vision and only the bare minimum in investment. Eventually this, too, will be exposed when the services are needed most.

The people who steered the country straight into the crash are not the people to build a new economy. They are not the saviours; they are the inside men who want the old days back. The old days were wrong and this budget does not deserve the support of this House.

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