Alex White (Labour)

Regarding the Budget Statement, many of us were hoping for a bold and innovative set of measures to rescue the country from its current economic situation. We got nothing of the sort. Instead, we got the launch of a number of liferafts by the Government to try to save the economy.

I will either disagree with Senator O'Toole concerning the levy or nuance some of his comments. While this matter can be dealt with during the debate, it is worth mentioning. Recently, the Deputy Leader's party leader, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, appeared to advocate higher taxes for the higher paid, the rich and the super rich, with which I agree. He stated that he would try to achieve such in Government, in which respect I would have supported him. Regrettably, he did not achieve it. The levy represents the crudest, most regressive and most dishonest tax increase ever seen.