Brendan Ryan (Labour)

In deference to the Chair's indulgence, I probably will not take the ten minutes.

I do not want to go into the details of the Estimates again because my colleague, Senator McDowell, did so with both a skill and an expertise that I would not have. The fundamental debate taking place here – I note it is taking place inside Fianna Fáil with considerable vigour – is about the position on the political spectrum where the people want our country to end up. There is an articulated fear in Fianna Fáil that the minority party in the Government, aided by the Minister for Finance whose ideology is that of the minority party, has dragged what was a party of the centre left in a rightward direction, to the detriment of the well-being of many of those who vote for Fianna Fáil.

The real quality of the past four or five years of Government was the contradiction posed by the Government trying to have two different ideologies. In terms of taxation, it espoused George Bush's view. In particular, the touchstone of George Bush's economic philosophy was and is a reduction in capital gains tax. The essential point of divergence between his economic philosophy and that of Al Gore was the view of capital gains tax. Capital gains tax is, by definition, a tax on the wealthy. Ordinary people, unless they inherit shares or something similar, do not end up with the privilege of paying capital gains tax. As an instrument of public policy, capital gains tax can and should be used in times of difficulty to stimulate the economy. Cutting capital gains tax at a time when property, share and land prices were booming was both socially unjust and economically very foolish. It simply stimulated and provoked an overheated property market. It was the wrong thing to do.