Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I also welcome the budget announced today by the Ministers, Deputies Donohoe and Michael McGrath. It has to be put into context. Every party comes up with its proposals on what it wants to do in the budget and what money should be spent on. The most important thing to recognise is that the position we are in enables us to do what we are doing. That does not happen by accident. The public is looking in and seeing that today's measured decisions are being made in recognition of the challenges ahead over the next number of years and on the back of a strong economy.That has been achieved by managing the economy well over the past ten to 12 years, after coming out of a recession, going through three crises - Brexit, Covid and a war in Ukraine - and now inflation. We are in a position where we can support people, households, families and workers. We do not have to look too far abroad to see how difficult it would be if we were not in that strong economic position to be able to protect people. It seems, day after day, things are getting worse in the UK where they have to borrow to lower taxes. Today, we have managed to put money back into people's pockets and lower taxes, yet hold money back for a future point if we need it. As well as this budget being a spend-budget and giving money back to people, it has also been prudent. We have held back €2 billion this year and propose to hold back €4 billion next year because we do not know where we will be in six months and, therefore, it is important to be in a position where we can introduce measures over the next six months.

I could go through a load of measures that have been brought forward and welcome them all. The main point is that we recognise people are struggling, and money has been put back into their pockets today to help them get over the winter months.