Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and thank him. I welcome the opportunity to have the debate and speak and have a real debate on the budget. To listen to some of the people speaking here today, one would reckon we were in the land of Charles Dickens. As I said on the Order of Business, this is the first of three budgets by the Government. Let us put it in the context of where we have come from. We can all eloquently humanise and personalise the stories of our neighbours, family members and friends in terms of disability and health care. Let us put it in context. Today, our country has a budget in which we can give money to people, whether it is investment in public services, home care packages, home help hours or, as Senator John Dolan discussed, increasing disability programmes whereby we can allow all people to have a quality of life, or in the provision of child care and preschool education. I made the point to the Members opposite that they are for nothing and against everything. Their party is the party of high tax. I have had their budget read and analysed by friends who are accountants.

I will repeat what I said on today's Order of Business, because it is worth saying. This is about ensuring the quality of life of all our citizens is improved. It is about ensuring the lives of people are a little better and, hopefully, better in spades, whether through the provision of special needs assistants in schools, the recruitment of more gardaí and nurses, the building of more schools or the provision of capital investment in infrastructure in many of our constituencies. As a social democrat, I have come to the conclusion that Sinn Féin has gone to the left of left. While I have good time for Senator Paul Gavan, he should go to Cuba and stay there and build up the health service and economy, and return to us and say he has done it in Cuba. Sinn Féin did not do it in the North of Ireland and it does not do it here. Sinn Féin members are going to budget meetings in councils across the country and voting "Níl". Sinn Féin comes here every day and has spending proposals bigger than the county hall in Cork. It would want to have the budget of the World Bank to keep it going.