Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

They said, "No, thank you very much." They also heard what we said and what Deputy Paschal Donohoe said during the general election as well, when we said, "Yes, we want to do measures on income tax", but we put in black and white in the programme for Government that if it was a choice between doing certain things or doing income tax we would choose the other things because we have to keep this country safe. The Deputy only asked me about tariffs once at Leaders' Questions. He never wants to discuss the economy or the global headwinds that the country faces. We have to keep our country safe. There are people watching in on this programme today who remember what it was like wrong choices were made in budgets. They remember what it was like when too much money was spent. They remember what it was like when people did not manage the country prudently.

What we did in this budget was set out to deliver a five-year programme for Government, and it is a five-year programme for Government. The Deputy is conveniently picking up our programme for Government and saying, "Why have you not done in one year everything that you said you would do in five?" That is not how it works. We need to be honest here. What we have done is we have taken steps to help those most in need.

To take the issue of fuel poverty, we extended the fuel allowance to 50,000 more people. We regularly discuss that issue. I am sure the Deputy welcomes that fact. We embedded a reduction in college fees permanently so that students will not have to wonder what the fees will be next year. It is now on a downward trajectory and that is embedded, and it has been extended to apprentices.

We are going to deliver on the €200 per month per child commitment in the lifetime of this Government. That is what we said we would do; it is what Sinn Féin said it would do. It is what we all said we would do. However, we also have to make sure we deliver the capacity and that we have the places. That is why there are 21 commitments in the programme for Government and we are working through them already. In this budget, we actually delivered funding to significantly increase the number of childcare places. That is really important. I regret Sinn Féin did not do that in its alternative budget. Reducing the cost of childcare but not having childcare places is not much use to anybody.

This budget is being completely misrepresented by Sinn Féin. It should look at what the CEO of Inclusion Ireland said yesterday morning when she welcomed the significant uplift in funding. There is over €680 million extra for disability services, €1.5 billion more for our health services, and more than €800 million more for our education system. The budget is investing in public services, targeting the resources at those who most need them, particularly at the issue of child poverty. I was disappointed at Sinn Féin's lack of ambition on the issue of child poverty. It would have done a hell of a lot less than we did. Let us look at what it said it would do on child support payments. It promised the people it would do €12.50 for under-12s. Its pre-budget submission only did €6. We delivered €8, so let us get real.

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