I thank the Ceann Comhairle. I am delighted to be here today and I thank her for her kind wishes. I am pleased to join the Taoiseach and Cabinet colleagues for these statements on budget 2027. The Government sees this budget as the next step in the trajectory of delivering on our programme for Government. It is a path to securing Ireland's future. It is a path that brings us to a place in which work is rewarded, econ…
TDs / Simon Harris
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Introduction
It gives me great pleasure to join with the Minister, Deputy Chambers, and the Government in presenting budget 2027 to this House.
Today's budget is the second in this Government's term. No one budget can achieve all the things that a government wants but it can set us on a path, a trajectory, a way forward.
The path we are setting out here today is an optimistic one for Ireland. It is a path that bri…
In the North, they are going up.
They were lower than in the North.
They are lower than in the North.
I am.
They are coming down.
They were reduced today.
They are coming down, Mairéad.
We did not.
That is not true.
No one is laughing.
Or a First Minister.
Does that apply in the North as well?
What about in the North?
Is the abolishment for the whole island?
I will start with the Deputy's final point and say, yes, the Irish Government will be involved at all levels and at the highest level in relation to this ongoing, tense and concerning issue. I think everybody in the House would agree that we have come much too far to ever go back, when it comes to the North. We all agree on that. In many ways this is not simply a Green versus Orange issue. It is actually an issue of …
In all fairness, I think I have very clearly answered that question. We will be continuing to stay involved at the highest levels, and at all levels political and official, with counterparts and interlocutors in the British Government and the Secretary of State, with the community and residents, and with political parties and political leaders in the North, including Deputy Cullinane's party leadership as well.
I ha…
If we are to have an honest debate around this it would be helpful if we listened to each other. It would be very helpful if Deputy Rice had listened to what the Taoiseach said in the House yesterday when this issue was raised. It is not helpful to the many parents who engaged with Mr. Farrell's scoping inquiry. He is a very eminent senior counsel, which I am sure Deputy Rice would accept, who has done a very compreh…
Me too.
When we talk about families we have to accept there is a diversity of views. There are absolutely some families and advocacy groups-----
Allow me to speak. They have a view that this should be held fully in public.
There are also some who do not believe that. No matter what the number is, everybody has a right to be heard. When we are talking about the medical information of a person or their child, they have a right to be heard in a way that works for them. We do not need to be adversarial on these issues. People can choose to be if they want to, or…
I thank the Deputy very much. There is certainly no fear of Labour's alternative budget being leaked anyway. I look forward to it being published later this afternoon and having a chance to read it and engage constructively on it in the time ahead. At the outset, let me say that while we will all come at this from different perspectives and points of view, I do not doubt that every party in this House, Government and…
I love honest debate and I welcome it. I look forward to honest, robust debate on our proposals and Labour's proposals in a constructive spirit to try to get the best outcome for the people that we are all elected to serve. I will make the point that just because the Department says it needs more, does not mean that a Government should say "Grand, here is another cheque".
We have got to a level of public spending now, and I do not mean this smartly, that was almost unimaginable when the Deputy's party was in government. We are at a level of public spending now that does merit the question. It is one thing to ask people to do more with less, but it is quite another thing to ask State agencies and Departments to try to do more with more. I do not buy into the idea, and I am not saying t…