Labour claims relocation plan was 'cover-up'

The Labour spokesman on the environment, Mr Eamon Gilmore, has said the decentralisation announcement was a "cover- up for a lazy Budget and to provide some cheer for the demoralised Government backbenchers" .

He said the proposals were a test of the gullibility of the people.

"The people of 53 towns selected for promises of Government offices and decentralised civil servants need to ask themselves why they should believe this promise from the same people who lied to them before the general election about school extensions, 2,000 additional gardaí and 200,000 additional medical cards."

In the resumed Budget debate, Mr Gilmore said newspaper reports had revealed that the line ministers and civil servants in the Departments affected were only told about the plan 48 hours before the Budget.

"If this is true, the decentralisation proposals are not serious or thought out."

Mr Michael Mulcahy (FF, Dublin South Central) challenged the Opposition parties to say if they opposed benchmarking and decentralisation.

"If so, what exactly does it support?" There had been no words of congratulations for the Minister for Finance who in recent years had steadily brought the State down to one of the lowest tax economies in Europe, which was essential, he said.

The Fine Gael spokeswoman on education, Ms Olwyn Enright, said that while she welcomed decentralisation, she wanted a few issues clarified.

"I assume the Government's cap on employment in the public service still stands, which should be clarified for people."

She added that while she welcomed the benefits of decentralisation, it would not replace the jobs lost in her Laois-Offaly constituency.

"The Government is not off the hook because of this announcement. It must be accepted that we still need replacement industries for those lost."

Mr Paul Connaughton (FG, Galway East) said that if it were not for decentralisation, it would have been a non-Budget.

"There was nothing to talk about. All the ills that existed previously still exist."

He added that for four years the Minister for Finance had indicated he would announce, from the side of his mouth at various elections, that there would be decentralisation.

"One year followed another, but all of a sudden we get the message for 2004. The fact that June 11th is the date for European and local elections never crossed the Minister's mind."

Mr Connaughton said that people would be asking where the 2,000 gardaí went and why schools that were promised were not built.

"Many people in Dublin seem to think that Lucan is in Co Mayo - that is the culture. Between Fianna Fáil, the Progressive Democrats and the Minister for Finance, Departments will move out of Dublin but not too far to the west."

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr McDowell, said it was a pleasure to participate in the Dáil debate in the wake of a very successful Budget.

"The ritual hand-wringing and loud breast-beating from the Opposition have been more than usually empty and vacuous on this occasion. On taxation particularly, the Opposition seems to speak from a position of abject political and moral bankruptcy."

He added that in the past seven years, Ireland had undergone an unprecedented revolution in taxation and employment creation.

"Hundreds of thousands of people have found employment in a dynamic, fast-growing economy that has weathered the storm of international recession. Far from being a society of mass unemployment and emigration, ours has become a society of low unemployment and substantial immigration."

The Minister of State for Finance, Mr Tom Parlon, said that the Budget had delivered fairness in a new way, not alone in tax reform and social welfare but in where and how Government spending would be distributed across the State.

"This radical and reforming Budget is only possible because our economic and social strategy has worked for people, for jobs and for our communities.

"Our main economic objective is to consolidate the gains that have been made in recent years and to build on our future prosperity. The significant gains made by Ireland in recent years are due in large part to the Government's sound Budget policies."

Mr Joe Jacob (FF, Wicklow) commended the Government "for resisting what must have been a great temptation to borrow heavily, particularly as there were those who strongly advocated this course."

Happily, he added, it appeared that lessons had been learned from the mistakes of the past made by governments of all hues when that course was embraced with disastrous consequences.

"The Irish people and Irish taxpayers are still paying through the nose for those mistakes."

Ms Liz McManus (Labour, Wicklow) said the Budget was about defending the super-wealthy and providing tax breaks which the wealthy could avail of, while others could not.