During the Order of Business in the Seanad, I said: this year, the budget will be announced in October rather than December, the reason for which is, in part, so that we can debate it. I hope we will have an opportunity to debate it well ahead of the decisions' being made. This is exactly the type of work the Seanad should be doing...

For example, we are currently facing the challenge of obesity. There have been many calls for a tax on soft drinks and so on. I draw the attention of the House to what is happening in Denmark, which introduced a fat tax some years ago on soft and other drinks. It recently reduced this tax dramatically as it believes the economy is more important at this time. The high streets of Denmark were losing a substantial amount of business across the German border because the cost of products in Denmark was too large. Denmark has now reduced those taxes and has taken a number of other steps, such as reducing the cost to retailers and businesses in order to allow them to compete more with businesses across the border in Germany. The comparison between what is happening in County Louth and the Border counties and in Northern Ireland is similar.

The Irish Government could introduce similar measures to those introduced in Denmark, which has reduced taxes for businesses, increased incentives for home improvements and allowed people to take money out of their pensions, which process has commenced here. Denmark believes that the release of more money into the economy is the way to conquer austerity, create jobs and get high-street business moving again. In my view, these matters are not a high priority in the Irish Government. These are the issues we should be discussing prior to the budget. We have a few months to do so. Let us not wait until the budget decisions have been made before discussing these issues.

Let this House do its best to influence that budget. In terms of our work schedule, I believe we should have a budget debate every week between now and October, when it is proposed to announce the budget.