Shane Ross (Independent)

I long for the day when the Government produces a budget, whether it is to its credit or not, and a member of the Opposition in this House says: "Yes. On balance, this was a good budget. They did reasonably well." I long for the day that the Opposition comes to the House and treats a budget seriously and does not just pick on it and say this, that and the other is bad.

Undoubtedly, this budget was one of the easiest budgets in the history of the State to produce and one of the hardest to oppose. I would have welcomed if any member of the Opposition had come to the House today and said: "Yes. We approve of some of this. A lot of this is good." However, what happened in the Dáil has happened here this evening, in that the Opposition has constantly picked on the bad parts. What should have happened——