Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State and the opportunity to speak on the budget. It is a tradition that has developed in recent times. I welcome it because the budget needs to be debated at this early stage.

Over the past few months the Government spin has been focused on the need to convince the public that this would not be an election budget. Therefore, I sat listening to the budget to see whether or not it would be an election budget. I took out a piece of paper afterwards and wrote down two columns. In order to decide whether or not this is an election budget, in one column I put the short-term steps the Government would take and in the other I put the long-term steps. One can guess what was the outcome. The column of short-term steps was filled and the column of long-term steps was practically empty.

My concern is that this is an election budget, that the Minister focused on the short term. I agree entirely with Senator Mansergh. What a wonderful job the Minister had — to have this surplus, to have this great economy and to be able to spend this money. However, I then looked to see why was one column so long and the other column so short. It was then that I had regrets.

My first conclusion was that I was not too surprised that a Government would look to the short-term with an election only six or eight months away. The only aspect that surprised me was the comparison with the previous occasion. The Government has tried to make it less obvious that this was a short-term budget and an election budget. On the last occasion it did not take this approach and it rebounded within weeks or months of the election.

My first regret, which follows from a debate that I initiated only a couple of weeks ago, is that I do not see any tackling of inflation, which is a serious problem here. If anything, the steps the Minister has taken will encourage spending.

My second regret is that while there has been considerable investment in some of the important elements in infrastructure, and particularly in roads, there was not a word on broadband. If only a tiny amount of the money spent on roads had been allocated to broadband it would give us the opportunity to compete in the marketplace in the years ahead, yet I did not hear that mentioned. Similarly, I heard no mention of educational disadvantage. A significant sum of money has been allocated to it, but it needs a great deal more if we are looking toward the long term rather than the short term.

I am sure somewhere in the budget there is an allocation of money to combat crime, which is another serious element that was prevalent in the past and is now high on our agenda. I did not hear it mentioned. Perhaps it was mentioned and the Minister of State will draw our attention to it when he replies.

The other conclusion I made was there is a danger this is an election budget because it does not concentrate on competitiveness. Senator Mansergh and the Minister of State, Deputy Parlon, spoke of the great economy of recent years and I give full thanks to the efforts to which this and previous Governments have gone to make it such. If we are to maintain the economy as strongly as it has been, we must ensure that we maintain our competitiveness in the years ahead, yet I did not hear any indications of intent in the budget. On that matter, I am concerned.

It is true to say that the next election will not be won or lost on issues such as educational disadvantage or even on competitiveness. That will not be where the problem lies as far as the public is concerned. The more money we have available to spend, the more we should focus attention on the fundamental long-term issues, and, unfortunately, the opportunity to do so has been ignored on this occasion. While I, and I am sure we all, welcome all the various generous steps that have been taken, the Minister had the opportunity to do more. He had the opportunity to take a long-term approach rather than a short-term approach. I regret he has not done so.

I welcome all the short-term measures the Minister announced. It would be a difficult enough budget to challenge. I do not envy the Opposition stating what is wrong with the budget but the Minister has missed an opportunity to take the long-term rather than the short-term approach to strengthen our economy in the years ahead and to ensure we conquer inflation, strengthen our broadband, tackle educational disadvantage and, most importantly, maintain our competitiveness in the marketplace so that our economy remains strong.