Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State and his officials to the House. As he correctly pointed out in the first line of his speech, these are the pre-budget Estimates. Obviously they will be followed by post-budget Estimates and a revised Book of Estimates at a further stage. In some areas, this most obviously applies to social welfare. The full picture is not given, so judgment must be suspended to a degree.

I welcome the provisional Book of Estimates, which is designed to give us and sustain a strong economy. If one looks at the basics, we have a strong economy. We are two years into an international downturn and hopefully can see signs of an upturn. Unemployment at 4.5%, which was historic even in good times, is extraordinary in conditions of international downturn. We have a sound financial position, with debt remaining low. In short, we will be in a strong position going into any upturn and these factors will help to sustain this.

We have had extraordinary increases in public expenditure since 1997. The Minister quoted some statistics for both current and capital spending. Would those resources have been available if we had followed any other economic policy? I do not believe there is any other way we could have achieved such extraordinary increases in public expenditure.