DÁIL DEBATE:TOBACCO, ALCOHOL and petrol price increases which came into effect from midnight last night will earn the exchequer €43 million by the end of this year and €302 million next year.
During a late night Dáil debate on income and excise increases, all parties accepted the 50 cent increase on packets of 20 cigarettes and the 50 cent increase on bottles of wine, as well as a move to increase the tax on betting from 1 to 2 per cent, which comes into effect on January first next.
There were however sharp exchanges over the plan to increase petrol prices by eight cent a litre, and former Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said it "beggars belief that the Government would increase petrol prices when most Ministers haven't been in a petrol forecourt in a long time".
But the Government comfortably won that vote by 84 to 68, and had an equally large majority in the decision to increase the upper rate of VAT from 21 per cent to 21.5 per cent. Tánaiste Mary Coughlan said the increases would raise the consumer price index by 0.7 per cent.
Earlier in the Dáil Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton said the budget could turn "a recession into a depression".
The savings had not been found in the big bureaucracies which the Government had built up over the past number of years, he said. "They have been found in the small crumbs that trickle across the table to ordinary people."
Those people would see higher charges for drug refunds, in the accident and emergency departments of hospitals, while their medical cards were tested even at low levels of income.
They had already seen, said Mr Bruton, how people waiting for home-care packages had felt the brunt of the cuts even before the Budget was thought of.
"Now, you turn the screw even further," he added.
He accused Mr Lenihan's predecessor, Brian Cowen, of dragging the economy to the edge of a cliff.
"Today, with this Budget, I believe you have pushed us over that edge," he added.
Mr Bruton estimated that a family with an income of €60,000, which was not a lot of money, would be paying €2,300 more in extra taxes, charges and levies.
"That is the reality you are presenting to ordinary families who are struggling to get by, to try and cope with childcare, to try and cope with the difficulties of living in a very tightened and straitened time.
"We were told you were going to be prudent in the way you invested scarce money. Why, then, did you take €2.2 billion off your capital programme, the public capital programme?," he asked.
Mr Bruton said they had been told that the Budget would make provision for the future.
"This is a Budget that is all about extra taxes for ordinary families, about extra charges for people, and about cutting capital spending," said Mr Bruton.
Income tax and capital gains' tax, and other taxes, were up.
"Every tax has been increased," said Mr Bruton. "This is not what the country needed." The capital programme had been cut at a time when they needed investment for the long-term future.
Accusing the Government of taking the soft road, Mr Bruton said that the Government was taxing any family, every family, any business, every business.
"You are looking to make it tougher for people who are struggling to get by," he added.
"There is no sign that you are aware of the pressure on people from fuel bills, the pressure on people who have lost their jobs."
That was the tragedy of the Budget, he said, adding that Fine Gael would have supported a courageous Budget. There was an alternative to going down the soft option of raising taxes.
"Today, we see the highest borrowing in this country for 22 years," said Mr Bruton.
"We see the golden rule of only borrowing for capital purposes broken.'' He warned that the Government was on course to double the national debt in less than four years.