Two years ago it was Covid and exceptional circumstances so there was an early budget. I am making the point that the Minister is deciding to go into the budget without sight of the crucial September tax returns, which every previous Minister for Finance has said is crucial to the input of the budget. That is fine if they want to bring it forward but let us not pretend it is because of a date clash with European Union meetings.

But the Government will not have the September figures.

To clarify, every Minister for Finance knows that the September returns are crucial. Deputy Chambers knows this as well. We know the importance of corporation tax here. Companies have to file by September. Is he telling this House that he is bringing forward the budget without sight of the September returns? This is what it appears to be. That is fine if he is making that decision but why is he making that decision? That is the question. The Minister is taking us and the public for fools.

He is taking the public for fools. If he does not want to answer the question that is fine but it is not for the Minister of State; it is for the Minister for Finance. He is taking us for fools. That is a major decision to take. Yes, it is absolutely a decision the Minister can take but it reduces the data he has in framing the budget. Every single finance Minister has crucially said that. The Committee on Budgetary Oversight has been demanding that the White Paper be published weeks earlier and every Minister for …

I am asking the Minister the question.

This is an issue I have raised numerous times. It is about insurance costs. The insurance industry continues to rip off motorists and small businesses with high prices. Since 2020 the insurance industry has recorded sky-high profits while paying out dividends to their shareholders. For years the insurance industry called for reforms to reduce the cost of claims. This is what it got through the personal injury guidelines. In three years we still have not seen costs being reduced to the level the industry promised. I…

That is perfect. I am sure the Minister of State's new boss will be as good to him as his predecessors were. I will note that the Minister has not started in the same way as his predecessors did. When there was a clash with the ECOFIN meeting and the budget in the past his predecessor asked the Minister of State at the Department of Finance to travel to the ECOFIN meeting. The Minister of State was Michael D'Arcy at the time and he represented Ireland at the ECOFIN meeting while the Minister for Finance was here de…

The previous example was on budget day.

To go back to the example I gave, which was from budget day in 2019 for budget 2020, the Minister for Finance delivered the budget and the junior Minister represented him at the ECOFIN meeting. It is not the case. Junior Ministers have represented the Minister for Finance. The Eurogroup meeting is the day before, with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe. There is no reason he cannot be here. He attends informal ECOFIN meetings, but not the formal meetings in most cases. When we were in the convention centre during the ear…

Hang on.

The Minister of State is being misleading.

Only motor insurance has gone down. Public liability insurance has not gone down. We are talking about-----

The Minister of State said it has gone down drastically.

It is an insult to the companies-----

It is misleading.

It is completely and utterly misleading and companies will be annoyed about what the Minister of State said.

Tá seacht mbliana ann ó thug an Taoiseach nuair a bhí sé ina Aire Sláinte gealltanas nach mbeadh aon pháiste ag fanacht níos faide ná ceithre mhí le haghaidh máinliacht scolóise a d’athródh an saol a bhí acu. Briseadh an gealltanas sin arís agus arís. Tá a fhios againn anois nach bhfuil an t-airgead a chuireadh ar fáil in 2022 caite chun na seirbhísí seo a sheachadadh. Teip eile é seo ar an Rialtas. Is scannal é atá ag ligean síos páistí agus á bhfágáil i bpian. In 2017, the then Minister for Health and current Tao…

I am not sure whether the Tánaiste has just listed out the incompetences in terms of the Minister for Health. Let us boil this down to what happened. The Minister was told by CHI that if he gave it €19 million, it would reduce the waiting list so that nobody would wait more than four months. The Minister gave CHI the money. Within weeks, the parents and the advocates were telling his office that this money was not going where it was needed. They were begging him to investigate this. They had a formal meeting. They …

When did the Minister carry out an audit? He carried out an audit in 2024, two years later. Within weeks, the flags were going up. Within weeks, the parents knew. The parents have enough on their plate. Parents and families from right across this State were outside the Dáil in February. They told us about the pain and the hurt and about patients in my constituency who need these surgeries. The Minister allocated the money - fair play - but the money did not go where it was needed. He was told, begged and pleaded wi…

The money is not being spent in the right place.