David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste was not here earlier when almost the entire Opposition opposed even having this debate here today. We have 15 minutes to discuss a €6 billion fund. I understand €2 billion will be allocated this year. We could have a quarrel or debate about the amount of money which is being put aside. Under Sinn Féin's budgetary proposals, there would still have been a surplus and, in principle, we are not against having money in a rainy day fund, as it is called, and having money to use in the future. That is not the issue. The fact is there was no reason to have this debate tonight. We could have had it next week. We could have had a more fulsome debate where we could have had a proper dialogue around that fund, its use and the amount of money we put into it. I will not take up any more time because I know other people want to come in as well. This is not a debate we should be having tonight. It sets a bad precedent. There are obviously measures that come under financial resolutions that we need to debate tonight. That is reasonable. We had the debate. Some of the debates were very short because of the tight timeframe. We are at a loss to understand why in God's name we had this debate at all tonight. I very much hope it will not happen next year and that the Government will listen to the concerns raised by the Opposition.

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