David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to speak about charities. I have with me one of several folders which are full of submissions from charities. If I was to mention every single one, my time would be used up. Some years ago members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a marvellous organisation, brought a proposal to me which would have been Exchequer neutral, that is, it would have cost the State nothing to implement but would have been socially beneficial. It has given a lead to several other charities which have also come up with Exchequer neutral ideas that would be socially beneficial. I suggest to the Minister of State that we establish a working group to examine the submissions made with a view to determining whether they would be Exchequer neutral and, if so, adding them into the budget proposals.

Regarding the budget, I give up. At the end of the process we will have taken ¤28 billion out of the economy, while only moving by a figure of 2% in terms of the deficit. It really is Sisyphus rolling the stone up the mountain. Why are we doing this? It is because we have given ourselves away to external forces. We have surrendered. The figure of ¤3.1 billion keeps coming up like on the fruit machines when one gets three lemons, one knows something is happening in the undergrowth. The budget is taking ¤3.1 billion out of the economy and there is the ¤3.1 billion we are going to give away, to be destroyed, in March. The tragedy is that the underlying economy is good. We have a ¤3.1 billion trade surplus. If we did not have this debt, we would be in a much better place and should tell the people concerned to bugger off.