Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

Last week, various bodies were saying Government was spending far too much as it is. This year's budget is about €117 billion, €98 billion plus in capital and so forth, and then we have increased current expenditure over the past three years by 15%. We are spending very significant sums of money. We are targeting it in terms of infrastructure, low income families and making sure that those in the lowest deciles of income are protected, insofar as we possible can. We are then dealing with the fuel allowance and so on. Then there is the VAT, of course. We have extended the reduction on VAT to 9% out to 2030, which will save households up to about €100 per year in addition to the tax disregard for households involved in energy microgeneration and so forth.

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