One of the reasons the Government has been able to do all this is that it has not cut back on the amount of money that is being spent on social welfare. Rather, it has consistently increased it in a global context because it has managed the economy so well. We were able to divert huge amounts of money away from unemployment assistance and unemployment benefit. I cannot understand what some commentators have been writing in recent days with regard to the economy – some of it bordering on hysteria. One would think we were in the depths of despair and that the entire country was about to collapse around us. That is not the case. Tax revenue is not as plentiful as anticipated – perhaps due to the success of some of the schemes that were put in place or miscalculations – but that is not to say that the economy is not fundamentally strong. I disagree with Senator McHugh's point that unemployment was on an upward spiral. Perhaps he did not see the figures that were released earlier this week which showed that the number on the live register has actually gone down.