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

I welcome the budget and I thank both the Ministers who presented it and all the other Ministers who made their contributions to it throughout the year. I will not spend too much time talking about the refrains that come from the Opposition at times like this when there is a call for more, and whatever it was, and when would you like it? Now. Of course, it inevitably comes to that. Then there is the question of the missed opportunities. We hear this every year about the missed opportunities - should have done more; should have addressed a number of issues. We all remember the people who called on the Government over the past two or three years, including this year, about the tax reserves for the future, once called a rainy day fund. There were calls for the spending of that fund now because it is raining now. There was an appalling attitude on behalf of some people because it was a clear indication of the failure to understand what could happen and what will be a challenge in the future.

There are many challenges right now and those challenges are coming up fast and are numerous. It was an evenly distributed budget insofar as it could be distributed evenly to every quarter. It was constructive and well placed in the urgent need to meet the urgent calls of people who are squeezed by the cost of living, housing costs and a number of other issues. The Minister did extremely well to cut the budget around the template that was necessary to address the issues that had to be addressed while at the same time recognising there is a responsibility on Government to ensure we do not arrive at a juncture in the future whereby we have no reserves and nothing to call upon. We need to reflect on the time, which is not long ago, when a group of International Monetary Fund, IMF, representatives were in Government Buildings, dictating what could be done, how it could be done and, in particular, how it could not be done and what might never be done. In those situations it is good to remember that, while we have the resources now, they are well placed and put in such a way for the country to be able to fall back on them in the event of an emergency.

I want to speak about that for a couple of moments. An emergency could come quickly because of the numerous events that are happening worldwide. It could be deep and challenging and it could be immediate. It is as well the Government chose the path it did, that it was able to do so and had the resources to do so at this particular time which has its own challenges now that are equal to any challenge we have had. In that situation it was great to be able to rely on the cool hand of Government to judge the situation as it was presented to it, and that it was able to do so in a way that is calculated to ensure the future of the country insofar as we can in any challenge likely to come before us in the future, be it in the distance or immediately.

A number of issues remain such as around the school transport system in some areas in our constituencies. There are still issues relating to health despite the fact a huge budget has been allocated to that area. There are still issues in a number of areas which will need to be attended to gradually with a view to addressing those issues such as school transport that have been dragging on for a number of years, have not gone away and still present themselves. What is important at this stage is to be able to compare the economic performance of this country with those in other European countries, within the European Union in particular, and ascertain, to the extent we have, the ability to survive in a very competitive situation; the ability to do the right thing, when, if and how we can; and the ability to be in control of our own destiny, because we were not in control of our own destiny for a while. Far be it from us to have to go back to that situation again.

I congratulate the Ministers on their efforts and the Government on being able to produce such a budget without proposing cuts in any quarter. There were so many years when it was all we could think about, including the trade unions, who were forced to call on their members to accept cuts and to decide to be able to be constructive in the face of the situation that presented itself. One could not cover it all in five minutes, I am afraid, a Cheann Comhairle, but the rest will come out in due course.

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