Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Like many others, it is interesting for me to look at the budget we have before us. We live in defining times and we have been in defining times for many years now. Thankfully, we survived as a nation and an economy. A few years ago, there was little hope for us. Many of us thought we might never see the light of day again. We have survived thanks to prudent spending and careful planning. This budget again reflects the need for careful planning. I congratulate the Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, the Government and all parties in the House who have been supportive of the all-party stance on Brexit. This is the most defining moment we are likely to have for some considerable time. It consists of Brexit on the one hand and climate change on the other.

The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, has done a tremendous job in steering the country towards the storm and meeting it head on because that is what has to be done. We can speculate on where we should spend more money. Everybody wants to spend more money but there is not much sense spending more money unless we know where it will come from and whether we can afford to pay it back. Due to the challenges we have come through in recent years, we have learned a lesson. We have learned to be more durable. We have learned to think fast, to move fast, to plan quickly and to wait for the results. That has been successful and satisfactory.

We have something we never faced before. We have the possibility of what is a major trade challenge and, effectively, a trade war. I am not suggesting our colleagues across the water deliberately created this scenario, but the situation that is emerging is so severe that it is likely to have the kind of consequences that heretofore we have only dreamed about, not only for us on the island of Ireland but also in Europe and in the UK. The full impact of those combined consequences will not be felt until much later on in the year and into next year. The Minister has crafted the budget in such a way as to plan for the future, to contain the situation as it emerges now, to ensure the public in this country continues to be aware of what is happening and unfolding in front of us, and to ensure we can continue to have the resources to survive in the challenging times ahead.

I have referred to the all-party support. That has been tremendously helpful. There was no other stance to take in this situation. It is good to see, in comparison with some other countries, that the political system in this country was capable of presenting a united force and standing firm. That brought a considerable response from our colleagues across Europe. They saw the Irish political system standing firm and they stood firm as well. The other 27 EU countries stood firm. We owe a great debt of gratitude to them and we look forward to that continued support in the future.

While of course everybody would like to spend more money and have more money to spend, it does not happen that way. We have to pay for it first, we have to plan for it first, and we have to await the outcome. It is a bit like the chicken-and-egg scenario. Looking at the egg does not always produce the chicken, but in this particular situation we do not have any option except to plan what way we are going and hope the right result will follow. From the experiences we have had in the past, it is safe to say that we were previously trudging into the unknown. We now know we can do incredible things in particular circumstances that we were not capable of doing before. We have that experience behind us, which will stand us in good stead in the time ahead. It is to be hoped our economy will be able to survive and we will be able to see ourselves through the storms ahead.

There will be many critics, as there were in the past. There will be experts from all sides who will outline how it should be done and say that it cannot be done otherwise. I have no doubt those critics will emerge in the near future and for some considerable time into the future. My only answer to that charge is that doing it and solving it is the acid test. While we can be criticised by many people, the degree to which we can survive the challenges ahead of us will be the acid test on which we will be judged and on which this political generation will be judged. The future generation can look forward to the careful handling of the economy and of the climate change issue. In those circumstances, we will survive.

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