Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

——without feeling any shame. Will the Green Party members of Government push for changes to the type of cars Ministers drive? The Green Party Ministers are embarrassed to be driven around in cars that are not environmentally friendly but why do they not put the same pressure on their Government colleagues? They should lead from the top rather than expect everybody else to do it. The Government talks about the great changes to VRT and protecting the environment but it will be interesting to see if there are fewer Mercs at the back of Merrion Square this time next year.

On pensions, in the past few weeks, even since we had a debate on the issue in the House, there has been a collapse in the value of pensions of people in the private sector, yet in this budget the Government will have to borrow some of the €1.7 billion it put aside for public sector pensions, including their own, next year. A concession can be made regarding the hardship everyone will experience in the next few years if Ministers reject the pay award they gave themselves some weeks ago. What is happening in the country is insulting to people.

The big story of this budget is that the Government has left it too late. Stamp duty reform has come too late. There already has been a massive lack of confidence in the housing market.