James Bannon (Fine Gael)

This budget is a shame and a disgrace to the democratic process. Even by the Government's standards, it is an exercise in extortion that would in any other circumstance result in it having to face legal accountability. A year ago, I referred to the Minister for Finance as "Charlie the Slasher". This has proved an apt title for a Minister who over the past year has single-handedly caused more hardship among the less well off than anyone could have realistically imagined.

This budget, while a repetition of the scandalous document of last year, is an even greater indictment of the duplicity and gross mismanagement of the public finances by the Minster for Finance. After a year of holding the people to ransom and squeezing every last cent possible from the purses of the weakest sections of our society, the unemployed, disabled, elderly and sick, nothing has changed. The Government has no shame, as it cannot afford it. It spent and squandered it along with our public money, the fruits of our boom years. We all know that the Government has squandered the public finances and now it expect its criminally negligent shortfalls to be met and mended by those least able to afford their demands.