Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Conway-Walsh made a call for more capital spending, more money for the health service and more money for social protection. They are just three of the items she listed. All of those would very considerably add to the size of the overall budget package, which already proposes spending growth of 6.9% compared with a year ago. The bigger the Deputy makes the package, in the way she proposes, the greater the risk that we begin to fund permanent increases in expenditure out of tax receipts that I am convinced will not be around forever, and we should not rely on them. That is a legitimate point of difference between the two of us. Deputy Conway-Walsh is obviously entitled to take a different view on whether the surplus we have is permanent. I do not believe it is, but if the Deputy goes down the path she proposes, my honest assessment is that she will be relying on day-to-day spending and baking into permanent expenditure money that will not be permanent. I strongly urge the House not to go down that path again.

As this is my final exchange of this priority question I hope the Acting Chair will indulge me when I thank the Deputy for her very gracious words on the passing of somebody who was a great gentleman, a wonderful parliamentarian and a great representative of Mayo. Due to my duties here this evening and tomorrow, I cannot attend the ceremony, but I greatly appreciate the words the Deputy offered.

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