A BLATANT attempt to buy off voters with their own money in the forthcoming general election has underpinned the 1997 Budget, Opposition politicians in Leinster House have claimed.
As the thunderous applause that greeted the Minister for Finance's speech died down on the Government benches at about 5 p.m., the Fianna Fail spokesman, Mr Charlie McCreevy, rose to denounce the Budget as "barely a toemark on the seashore to be washed away by the next small wave".
"If there was no election, the Minister would not have come into this House with this Budget ... It is an attempt to revive the electoral fortunes of the Government by trying to purchase the votes of the electorate. Trying to please many is often a sure political recipe to antagonise all," he said.
In a reference to reports that the Minister had threatened to resign last month in a disagreement over public spending with the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, the Fianna Fail spokesman said he now understood why Mr Quinn "wanted to get out". He wished to save himself the embarrassment of having to deliver the Budget speech".
Mr Quinn was pursuing the "absolutely wrong policy at this time", having flown in the face of the strategy that had brought about a successful economy.
Instead of being cautious about changing tack, the Government had failed to live within the parameters set by itself. Had it done so, it would have an extra £500 million available today, he said.
Warning that the 1997 Budget would ultimately have an inflationary effect on the economy, Mr McCreevy said one cannot fuel more money into the economy in the present boom.
As far as his party spokesman on Social Welfare, Mr Joe Walsh, was concerned, the Exchequer would gain £1 million more per day in income tax in 1997 than it did last year. That was "the bottom line" for tax payers in the wake of this "mish mash, candly floss" Budget, he said.
Meanwhile, the £3 per week increase in all personal social welfare payments and the rise of £1.50 in adult dependant allowances "in no way make up for the cost of living", Mr Walsh added. Old age pensioners had received £6.50 in the last three Budgets, "a sum that would not buy a bag of coal".
In a stinging attack on the package, the Progressive Democrats spokesman on finance, Mr Michael McDowell, described the Budget as "a damp squib". It had been portrayed in public as an occasion on which the Government would secure its electoral future.
"The people will not be bought that cheap. The Budget statement is the longest redundancy application form ever composed and signed by a Minister for Finance and administration in the history of the State", Mr McDowell added.
The Minister did deserve commendation for "one or two provisions in the Budget". Mr Quinn had finally agreed that PRSI was a tax on work and that a reduction in this tax was a pro jobs, pro employment step.
"I salute the Minister's achievement in turning the tide and forcing the Department of Social Welfare to accept that PRSI is anti jobs and anti work and should be integrated into the tax system. I salute his first faltering steps down that road," he added.
Sympathising with the Minister "in attempting to control public spending", particularly in the manner in which he was "betrayed by the Tanaiste", he said it was clear Mr Quinn had tried to stop this explosion and was prepared at one stage to lay his job on the line.
For the Progressive Democrats spokesman on Transport, Energy and Communications, Mr Bobby Molloy, this was "a most disappointing Budget".
The only reduction has been 1p in the pound at the lower rate after five years of Labour in Government.
"The change is minimalist and one that the Progressive Democrats would be ashamed to bring in. It is not at all the type of change that is necessary," Mr Molloy added.
Meanwhile the Minister for Enterprise and Employment described as "nonsense" any suggestion that this was a "Labour" Budget. Fine Gael's "bedrock values" had been maintained in the package, he added.
In a message last night to party members, carried in its quarterly bulletin, Labour Forum, Mr Spring said this was "the best Budget ever produced in modern times". It ought to be a source of pride to the party that it was introduced by a Labour Minister.
"The magnificent job that Ruairi Quinn has done in the last two years will stand forever as proof that Labour can be trusted with the economy," the Tanaiste added.
But, according to the Fianna Fail health spokeswoman, Mrs Maire Geoghegan Quinn, the Budgetary allocation for hospital waiting lists will not be adequate. The latest figures show lists are up by 32 per cent in two years and they will "rocket even further if the nurses's strike goes ahead", she said.
The party's spokeswoman on Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Ms Sile de Valera said that if Leopold Bloom had not made it" to Sandymount where Mr Quinn lives, the arts world would not have got a look in at all. The Budget had failed to address the issues facing this sector.
No provision was made for the Millennium which is just 1,000 days away, she added. Neither was there a provision for establishing a Film Commission which is necessary to address the downturn in film production in Ireland. According to the Budget, the National Archives "are somehow going to be able to develop without funds", criticism of the Budget is due to be voiced in the Dail today when the party leaders given their opinion of its contents.
Ms Audrey Glynn, managing director and owner of G&M Industrial Cleaning Cloths.