Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

However, I acknowledge that certain measures appear to have been suggested in the media regarding reductions in excise duties and child benefit. While I do not wish to pre-empt what Members may wish to say in the debate on the budget tomorrow evening, it is clear that it will be extremely difficult. Unquestionably, it will be the most painful budget in the history of the State. I hope and I am confident that the focus of the Minister and the Government will be on ensuring the most vulnerable and the less well-off are protected to the fullest extent possible. Moreover, when the budget is announced, Members of the Houses must be vigilant to ensure the many extant schemes aimed at looking after the less well-off do not allow people to slip through the net.

On the suggested reduction in excise duties, it would be far too simplistic for Members to interpret it as pertaining to the promotion of alcohol. I am from one of the Border counties from which almost €500 million in revenue is haemorrhaging from the State. On the basis that some do take alcohol and that this is their primary objective in crossing the Border-----