James Bannon (Fine Gael)

According to George and Wilding in Welfare and Ideology, public choice theorists stress two forces driving interventionism forward: first, the competition between parties for votes — we had an example of that here this morning between Senators Minihan and White — which stimulates parties to promise more and more, and, second, the self-interested budget maximising behaviour of bureaucrats and professionals.

This Government has taken the making and breaking of promises to an unprecedented level, as never envisaged by the above-mentioned authors. If ever there was a model of a self-interested budget, it is budget 2006, not budget 2010 of which Senator White gave us a preview. The budget was written with more than one eye on the polls and is designed to restore the faith of the outraged voter in this lame-duck Government, if such were possible.

However, this is not the full picture of Government duplicity. Electioneering at the expense of the taxpayer and in contravention of the rules governing elections is rife. Staff employed by Fianna Fáil and Progressive Democrats Ministers are being used to make telephone calls to radio stations in a blatant contravention of electoral rules. I know for a fact that the Minister of State, Deputy Parlon,——