Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----in spite of its being, probably, the most difficult budget in the history of the country. No budget in the next number of years will be as difficult as this one. Great credit is due to all Deputies who stuck together and did the right thing by the country. History will judge the actions of the people who occupy the Houses of the Oireachtas at present, how they behave and how they respond to difficult pressurised situations.

That said, the Finance Bill provides an opportunity for the Government to make incremental changes to the budget if it is desirable to do so. No Government gets it right all the time. There are always things that could be done differently or improved upon. For example, there should be a universal social charge of 3% to 5% on salaries in excess of ¤80,000, increasing incrementally as salaries go up. That would give the Government scope to revisit other difficult areas.

I ask the Leader to bring the following suggestion to the attention of the Minister for Finance. The Budget Statement should be a summation of the deliberations and discussions of Parliament. I commend the Leader for facilitating a number of budget debates in the Seanad before this year's Budget Statement. That should be given a more formalised structure whereby the Dáil would debate the different headings of the budget in the six to eight week period before budget day. Decisions would, effectively, have been made by then and there would be no surprises in the Budget Statement. The Minister for Finance would, effectively, sum up the deliberations and discussions of Parliament, which should have a significant role to play in drafting budgets. It should not be left to the Executive. All Deputies, and indeed Senators, should play a role in identifying ways of improving the country.