Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Let us not play games. At the end of the day, the Minister of State would not be sitting here unless Fianna Fáil agreed with the budget put before us today.

Before I deal with the budget, I will deal with the issue which led up to it, namely the 2016 general election. Whether the Minister of State likes it or not, the Fine Gael Party, and to a certain degree other parties in this House, overheated expectations to the point where people today were expecting wonders from the budget. Instead of that, we have got a relatively flat and mediocre budget. That is not to say all of it is to be condemned but it is mediocre, to say the very least, offering nothing great for people.

I am not so sure people will welcome the 1% change in the universal social charge, although it involves a 2:1 split on public services. The pensioners will be dancing at the crossroads tonight at the expectation of their €5 increase in the State pension next March. Then they will be able to buy 20 fags and have a little change. However, it will not be quite as much change as they would have had before the budget because the Government has put the price of fags up by 50 cent.