Fergus O'Dowd, TD

Fine Gael TD for Dublin Fingal, Alan Farrell, has today (Tuesday) commended the Minister for Sport, Michael Ring TD on the allocation of €29.1 million for the Sports Capital Programme announced in Budget 2015. This is in addition to the €80m this Government has already allocated to the Sports Capital Programme, a scheme Fianna Fáil abolished and we restored.

Fine Gael Senator for Louth, Jim D’Arcy has welcomed the news that €88 million is to be invested in education and that 1,700 new full time posts are to be created.

Fine Gael TD for Cork South Central and Chairperson of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children, Jerry Buttimer, has said the first budget since 2009 which does not cut the health budget offers an opportunity to stabilise the delivery of services and refocus reform.

Fine Gael Senator for Clare and the Party's Seanad Spokesperson on Justice, Disability and Equality, Martin Conway, has today (Tuesday), welcomed the commencement by the Government Reform Unit of the Department of Public Expenditure of the Statute Law Revision Programme.

Government Chief Whip, Minister Paul Kehoe TD, is pleased that there will be heavy investment in the area of Justice specifically recruitment of Gardaí, the purchase of Garda vehicles and a commitment to the of the new Garda divisional Headquarters in Wexford.

Fine Gael TD for Limerick and Member of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications, Patrick O’Donovan has called on RTÉ to reconsider their plan to close the longwave transmitter.

A Cheann Comhairle, Yesterday this Government delivered its fourth Budget to the House. This is a Budget to secure our recovery and to get Ireland working again. A recovery that many in this House said was impossible.

Fine Gael TD for Longford Westmeath, Gabrielle McFadden, has today (Tuesday) said that Budget 2015 is fair, and will help to secure the recovery for all sectors of Irish society. Low and middle income earners, the housing market, tourism and families have all been helped by today’s budget, and the sacrifices made by people over the last seven years will not be wasted.

In the three minutes I have to speak it is not possible to comment in detail on any or all of the elements of the budget. However, having listened yesterday to the litany from the Opposition of all the spending measures that were not included in it, I thought it was important to say something about what it was actually about.