Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

The Minister has been wrong in many things too. People are not opposed to decentralisation but they are not stupid. They realise this is a sham. First, the programme should never have been announced in a budget speech. It had nothing to do with the budget. It just highlighted how empty the budget was of any news that the former Minister, Charlie McCreevy, had to include it in his Budget Statement.

Senator John Paul Phelan and Senator Mansergh referred to Teagasc. That decentralisation was included in the Budget Statement even though it had been completed already.