Seanad debates

Wednesday, 1 December 2004

Budget Statement 2005: Motion.

 

6:00 pm

Photo of David NorrisDavid Norris (Independent)

That is very valuable work but it is not the entire contribution women should be making to Irish society. I was very glad that departing from the printed script which we have before us in this very efficiently produced booklet, the Minister paid tribute to his predecessor, former Minister, Deputy McCreevy, who laid the foundations for this budget. Although it must be gratifying for him to be sitting in Brussels it must also be dreadfully irritating and aggravating to see someone else spending the money his policies were involved in generating.

This budget is a significant achievement and there is no point in us trying to pretend otherwise. I found it amusing that some of the Opposition representatives in the Dáil claimed that the budget delivered too little too late and so on. That is nonsense. They should accept that the budget is good and that the Government lived up to its promises. The most significant element, which greatly delighted and heartened me and is a major step for this country, was the removal from the tax net of all those on the minimum wage, which is pretty scant. It would be niggardly for us on this side of the House not to recognise this as a remarkable step. I do not care which party took this step and it would be mean to deny that the Government did so.

We must pay tribute. Of course there was an element of politics in the decision, a reaction to local election results and so on but that is the way democracy works.

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