Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy raised a lot of very important issues there. I am not sure if I can cover them all in my response given the time I have, but I will do my best. It is as simple as this: when you have an economy that is growing, when you have more people at work, when you have more people who are earning more, and when you have more businesses trading more and making more profits, there are more favourable choices that you can make. Look at the labour force survey that was published today. There are 2.6 million people at work, and 600,000 more at work today than when I first became a Government Minister. Incomes are at an all-time high and female participation in the workforce is at its highest ever level. When you are in that position, when you pursue the right economic policies, trade policies and foreign policy for a number of years, then you have choices. Yes, in that context, when you have a strong economy, it is possible to reduce taxes, to increase social welfare and pensions and to find more money to invest in public services and public infrastructure. Not only is it possible, but it is what we have done every year, probably for the past six or seven years. Perhaps that has not been noticed by the Deputy, but it is a fact. I invite the Deputy to fact-check that. For the last number of years, we have been able to reduce taxes on incomes, we have been able to increase pensions and social welfare, and we have been able to increase public spending both on services and on infrastructure. We will continue to do that as long as this Government remains in office.

The biggest risk to us doing that in the future is a fundamental change in economic policy and a fundamental change in foreign policy. If we move away from the centre of the European Union and vote down trade agreements, as some of the Opposition parties want to do, and change our fundamental pro-enterprise, low tax and economic policies-----

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