Alan Kelly (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State and his officials to the House. I will try to go through the budget's provisions in a fair-minded way, the best way to do so. I will give praise and criticism where they are due.

I will not address the international and domestic factors in the budget's environment, but we all know that a major domestic factor is that of tax receipts, especially in respect of stamp duty and the consequential roll-on. The figures and graphs are going down, which we must address within the environment in which the budget was framed. This year's growth rate is 4.25% whereas next year's is projected to be 3%, which is of serious concern.

Inflation at its current level is an issue, particularly as the prices of basic food items are always increasing. Inflation is running at twice the level described to workers when they signed up to Towards 2016, which provided for a 10% increase in 27 months. In many cases, employees are concerned by any increases in a budget, real or not. We must worry about the projected increase in unemployment levels to 5.5%. The concern is not just unemployment, but the displacement of higher income jobs versus lower income jobs.

Without going into too much detail, we knew that Fianna Fáil's pre-election promises on top and lower rates of tax, pensions and PRSI would not be met.