Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As for the rainy day fund, once upon a time we had a National Pensions Reserve Fund, which was de facto a rainy day fund, and this became the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. Now the Government will take €1.5 billion out of that to seed the rainy day fund. Once again this is an exercise in optics. The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund had more than €5 billion on deposit due to a failure by the Government to invest in Ireland. Now, instead of finding off-balance sheet measures to boost housing, transport or broadband provision, this money will be left on deposit. This is while a budget is crafted on unsustainable tax increases.

There is much that has been left out of this budget. I would describe it as a blancmange budget. It is bland, boring and lacking in energy. It is enough to keep the punters reasonably happy and it is hopeful that nobody will get too exercised about it. It did, however, miss an opportunity. It missed an opportunity to do some really good work in the disability sector. It missed the opportunity to do some really good work for older people and in particular for those who find themselves in nursing homes. The budget is a missed opportunity and the notion that Fine Gael is representative of this so called "republic of opportunity" is a fallacy. It is a misnomer. It is disappointing that the Government has not delivered more when it could have.

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