Brendan Ryan (Labour)

At a time of such prosperity, it would be impossible for even the most incompetent Government to introduce a budget without something that we would all welcome. I welcome the aspects of the budget that are a step in a direction we agree with, and others which are at least a recognition of problems the Government pretended for years did not exist. It is fascinating that after seven years of "McCreevyism" the Government has discovered the possibility that the rich might not be paying any tax and that after one year of "Cowenism" it has discovered a way to deal with a problem Charlie McCreevy apparently failed to notice for seven years when he was running an economy in worse shape than Deputy Quinn had done in his three years as Minister for Finance. Growth was higher——