Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We used the figures made available by the Department of Finance and the troika in the same way as the Government parties could have done prior to the last general election, instead of exhibiting the most blatant example of political delinquency in history. They promised everything to all people and every community around the country, not least to my own constituency of Sligo-Leitrim, only to welch on their promises. This morning I pointed out that the Labour Party's posters stated: "Protect child benefit: vote Labour". We know what happened to that promise.

There were several options for this budget. The options we proposed would have produced a higher tax yield than the Government's without introducing the wrong tax at the wrong time, that is, the property tax.