Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

I recall vividly my work as Opposition Chief Whip at the time, trying to maintain the delicate balance of keeping a minority Government in power, provided it continued with a fiscal policy that would the benefit the nation. The party came under considerable criticism at the time because we were not voting in the Dáil and we adopted that line out of a sense of commitment to the national interest. I recall being lambasted on the basis that the role of the Opposition was to oppose come what may, and we had set aside that fundamental temptation in the national interest.

It was a happy development in relation to the maturity of politics and politicians, and the political system, that we decided on several issues to adopt a bilateral approach, or consensus politics. One of those issues was the welfare of the economy and thankfully that has been maintained by and large in the interim. The second issue was Northern Ireland. These areas were politically sacrosanct from the point of view of a consensus. While we might vary with regard to the margins, the strategy has been largely maintained.

I do not wish to score political points, but increased taxes are the result of the two-year period when public spending increased by 40% while revenue increased at a rate of between 5% and 6%. This fundamental difficulty with the public finances has limited the Minister's ability to make even marginal increases at the top and the bottom rates of tax. I acknowledge what the Minster has done for those aged over 65, but it was the increase in public spending by 40% in the two years leading up to the general election which caused the constraints in relation to tax concessions. We spent 7.5 times what we were earning.