Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for addressing us this afternoon. I was in the Lower House for the Budget Statement from the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, and for the contributions of my party colleagues, Deputies Michael McGrath and Cowen. They had an hour between them and the Minister's speech ultimately took approximately 75 minutes. I have eight minutes so I will try to summarise some of what is involved and point out some of the parts I wish to highlight.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on budget 2019. Fianna Fáil remains committed to providing stability in the middle of crucial Brexit talks. Following the confidence and supply agreement, many people thought we would not get to one budget let alone three. However, here we are delivering our third budget and facilitating the minority Government. It is important to remember that Fine Gael has 49 Deputies in the Lower House and if one includes the Ceann Comhairle, our party has 45. As a result., there is not that much of difference between the parties. The gap is narrower than it was. Our approach to this budget was to provide stability.