When progress was reported, I was dealing with the Budget as an indication of the social policy of the Government. I made the point that this second Budget of the Minister consolidates the position and leaves the Minister and his Government in the position that they can branch out in the future from that consolidated position. It is necessary to have stability. The two Budgets introduced by the Minister have given a certain confidence to the general public. They realise that the finances of this State are in the hands of a Minister who can be trusted to see that those finances are properly expended and that there is no waste or loss in regard to them. It is important for a Government such as this, with a declared policy as this Government has in regard to unemployment, emigration, the cost of living and housing, to have that confidence of the general public. Although I could criticise the Budget severely from my own particular point of view, I believe that it was necessary to go through this process of stabilisation and consolidation before any advance could be made.
As I have already said, the Minister for Agriculture has announced a policy of land reclamation and improvement that is going to give employment to thousands of people. The Minister for Local Government, in a Bill which is before this House at the moment and which I hope will be passed into law at an early date, has given indications of another branch of development which will assist the land, provide employment and be generally beneficial to the country. The Minister for Lands, in his policy for afforestation, has also indicated a policy of employment. The Minister for Local Government has proceeded with a policy of building the houses that we need. All these matters of the improvement of the land, the development of afforestation and so forth, are bound up with the Budget which makes provision whereby those Ministers will be enabled to put their policies into operation. Any sensible approach to the Budget must be one of satisfaction that the Minister and this Government have been able to inspire public confidence and to make the necessary preparations to enable millions of money to be spent in the provision of employment, not employment that will be useless but profitable and constructive employment that is going to enrich the land and improve the wealth of the nation.
We must look at it from that point of view. Last year the Minister was conservative in his approach. This year he has adopted a conservative approach to the problems, and I think that in the long run it will be considered the wise and sensible approach. If he did not adopt that line, if there was any want of confidence in the Minister or in the Government by the public it would not be possible for these great schemes of development to take place, and if they cannot take place it will be disastrous for the nation.
The reduction of 6d. in the £ in income-tax has a certain psychological effect on the public. It shows that here is a careful controller of the public purse who has been able to reduce income-tax to the extent of 6d. in the £. I personally would have preferred that the Minister had devoted the produce of that 6d. in the £ to increased allowances. However, I realise that the reduction of 6d. in the £ in income-tax has a very valuable steadying and beneficial influence on the general public. The Minister has taken a correct psychological line in doing that.
The Leader of the Opposition told us last year at a public meeting that this Government would not survive its first Budget. It has survived its first Budget and it has survived its second Budget. If the position is consolidated, as I believe it has been, it is going to survive many more Budgets. I would have liked to have seen an effort made by the Minister to redistribute the wealth of the community. I realise that that is probably a revolutionary thing to do. At all events it is a revolutionary thing to advocate in these times. However, if the Minister were to have proceeded to do that last year or if he were to proceed to do it now he would be storing up disaster for himself and for the Government. I think it was necessary that the position of the Government should have been made certain. The general public should have that confidence in the Government that I mentioned. Not only is the general public coming to realise that this Government is here to stay but the Opposition Party has realised that the Government is here to stay and that there is nothing in the foreseeable future that is going to terminate the life of this Government and put another one into office. That is clear from the speech made by Deputy Lemass last night. Deputy Lemass came in here to listen to the Budget. He was presented by the Minister in accordance with the custom of the House with a copy of the Budget speech. But Deputy Lemass had his criticisms of the Budget ready in advance. He had them typed out and brought them into this House, and it did not matter what Budget the Minister for Finance brought in Deputy Lemass's criticism was to be the same.
Deputy Aiken spent one-and-a-half hours or one hour and 35 minutes to-day speaking on the Budget. I was not able to be here for the whole of the speech, but I heard him for an hour and 15 minutes. He said nothing at all, not one word, not one solid or constructive thing did he say during the hour-and-a-quarter that I was listening to him. Why? That is the sign that defeat and inevitable dissolution has been accepted by the Fianna Fáil Party and that in itself is an indication of the success of the financial policy which the Government have shown in the two Budgets that have been introduced by the Minister for Finance.
I have said already that not only are these great works to be set going but the Minister has been able to provide for an increase in pay this year for the Army, for an increase in pay for the Gardaí, for an increase in pay for the teachers, and for an increase, as was announced last night by the Minister for Education, in teachers' pensions.
Deputy Lemass has got a bee in his bonnet in regard to the social welfare scheme. He has been harping on it here in this House and in the columns of his own newspaper, the Irish Press, the newspaper which, by the way, does not recognise my existence.