Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

My responses will be short because Ministers are waiting to come into the House. I appreciate the effort they have made at very short notice as the matter was placed on the Order Paper only yesterday morning.

Senators Twomey, Butler, Regan and Donohoe called for the Minister for Finance to give the House an up-to-date report on the economy and the challenges that face it. In addition to peace in Northern Ireland, the success of the present Government has been the economy. Ireland has been transformed in the past ten years. We must recognise the facts. The reason that former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald and his party did not get a vote of confidence from the people right up to the present was because their policies were opposite to those of today's Government. Income tax of 65%, a 2% health levy and another 1% on something else meant that we were paying 68% on incomes during that period. Facts are appreciated by everyone. Members who state statistics to the House should offer the entire body of statistics. I have great pleasure in allocating a half-day of debate on the economy, examining where we have come from and where the Minister sees our direction to be.