Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I welcome the Minister of State here and thank him for coming into the House and providing us with the courtesy of going through this two page statement, which I welcome. I also want to acknowledge the work that is being done in the Department of Finance on how this budget has been set out in simple format for people to read and follow on the website. It was a safe budget with an election in mind and we all accept that.

I will just make this comment because the Minister of State is here. We are all conscious in this House and in the Lower House that there is a confidence and supply arrangement in place. I come in here every day and I tend to look at what is going on in the Dáil as well. It is gas to hear Fianna Fáil criticising various matters in childcare, health, finance and all the other issues but it is a confidence and supply arrangement and democracy is not served well by that. It keeps people in jobs and it keeps the Ministers rolling around. I do not doubt their commitment but a confidence and supply arrangement is not good for the body politic and it is not good for the people. Under this regime, with all the money and all the budgetary arrangements we have we still have thousands of children waiting on the list. We still have thousands of people with cataract problems, we still have thousands of people looking for home care packages and we still have thousands of children being educated in prefabricated buildings and sheds. That is the reality of it. Members come in here and say it is great and all of this. The confidence and supply arrangement is a political arrangement to keep two groups in power and defer an election when the people will have their say. I am delighted to say some people will have their say in a few days time. Hopefully strong messages will come from that and we might learn something. I come in here every day on the Order of Business and hear Seanadóirí telling us about a problem they have with transport from Limerick, a problem in Cork with a hospital or the need for a school roof and it is all terrible. They are in government. They do not need to come in here and tell the Seanad what the problems are. They need to be knocking on doors in Government buildings and telling their Ministers what the problems are. If people want to come in here and grandstand, tweet and detail on Facebook that they were in here and sending a message, it is all a bit of a con-----