Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Finance Bill 2016. I am not one to defend the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, but in regard to Fianna Fáil's justification of its confidence and supply arrangement and its repeated statement since budget day that its biggest achievement in that regard is that it got Government to agree to a 2:1 ratio in terms of spend and tax cuts, I refer Fianna Fáil to Mr. Fiach Kelly's article of 25 January in regard to the Minister having said on record that the spend would be 70:30, 70% on spending and 30% on tax cuts, or to the article by Fiachra Ó Cionnaith on 1 February in the Irish Examineron the long-term economic plan, which shows that the figures are the same. Fianna Fáil proposed more net tax cuts in its manifesto than Fine Gael had done. I make that point because it seems the justification is that all that is in the budget came about because of Fianna Fáil. It appears that Fianna Fáil is trying to wipe-out the fact that Fine Gael in government had already embarked on this course. The other interesting one is the help-to-buy scheme. It is important that the House would look at the two different versions of the help-to-buy scheme. Deputy Michael McGrath was the instigator of this scheme at the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis.

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