Since this is the first section that brings in the increase of 10 per cent in rates, I would say something about the question put before us by the Parliamentary Secretary as to what we in Fianna Fáil would do to suggest how this might be raised by more than 10 per cent. Obviously, it is not the business of the Opposition to tell the Government how to do their business. They are supposed to do their business.
There is the fairly obvious point that the Minister could have raised the amounts quite a bit further by maintaining in the social welfare sphere the £8 million excess which was put on the stamp and which is just thrown into the general scheme of the budget as an additional piece of taxation. If that £8 million which is being raised from the workers were to be used for increasing benefits, that is one obvious simple way in which social welfare benefits could be increased further.
However, the basic and more important point is that the real cause of the shortfall this year, the inability of the Parliamentary Secretary—and I accept that he would be very anxious to do better than he is doing in this Bill— to do any better, even to maintain the existing real level of benefits under these schemes, is the incompetent financial policy of the Government which ultimately, and after doubling the national debt in two years resulting in quite simply running out of money, have had to borrow an enormous amount from the EEC on condition that they are not to borrow any more. The reason why they cannot do any better than they do in this Bill is that they have made a mess of the finances of the country. All I can say is that if Fianna Fáil had been in office for the past three years the country would not have run out of money and it would have been possible to do better than this Bill. It is a simple plain statement of fact.