Shane Ross (Independent)

I welcome the Minister to the House and I also welcome this Finance Bill, not so much for its detail but for the general philosophy behind it. It is difficult to welcome a Bill which is basically cutting back on some of the gains which we have made in recent years, but it is also irresponsible not to recognise the difficulties which the Government has faced in the economy in the past two years.

It would be easy always to oppose everything seen as unpopular, as an Opposition usually does. Such blind opposition would be wrong in the case of a Bill of this sort, which is a recognition of the realities of the economy. I am disappointed in the reaction of those on this side of the House, because one of the strange things about being in Opposition is that it never has a good word to say about the Government. It has said bad things about it in good times and in bad times. These are the easy times to oppose.

I would have more easily taken the Fine Gael reservations as expressed by their spokesman if I had heard anything constructive. It is very easy to say that this is the Government which bought the election. To some extent it did and it is easy to say that the electorate now feels fooled by the Government promises made. There is some justification in that statement too, but they were all at it. It was the most incredible bidding war since 1977.