The PDs were sharply attacked by the Fine Gael spokesman on finance, who demanded a curb on public expenditure.
Mr Jim Mitchell referred to "a creeping national emergency in which the duty of all patriots is obvious," adding that a reversal of current expenditure plans was required.
"If the Government was patriotic, it would take corrective action now and not wait until after the election. This cannot be expected of Fianna Fáil, but one would have expected it from the past rhetoric of Ms Mary Harney and the present hyperbole of Mr McDowell."
Noting Mr Des O'Malley's warning about public expenditure at last weekend's PD conference, Mr Mitchell said they had been shown by the PD backbencher "to be both fools and knaves."
As leader of the PDs, Mr O'Malley a man of strong convictions and "was not for turning on those convictions. Regrettably, the same cannot be said of his successor, Deputy Harney, who has overturned every principle she ever held, in order to facilitate every Fianna Fail fudge in the past five years.
"Weakened by the departure of Mr Pat Cox, and now further weakened by the return of the would-be führer, Michael McDowell, she has been reduced to a mere shadow of her distinguished predecessor. How does she respond to the lucid criticism of the Government's budgetary performance by Mr O'Malley? She does nothing. She would prefer to upset Mr O'Malley than Mr Ahern."
Mr Mitchell accused Mr McDowell of frightening "hypocrisy and double thinking", adding that the Attorney General had derided as "auction politics" Fine Gael's consideration of the tax men's case for some hardship fund. "Yet his PD colleague, Deputy Molloy, announced at the very conference a similar scheme."
Speaking during the debate on the Finance Bill, Mr Mitchell accused the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, of leaving the State with "hidden debts, including acknowledged debts for next year and the year after." The reality, he added, was that the Government was as strong as its weakest link - the PDs.
Earlier, Mr McCreevy outlined the Bill's terms, adding that they were part of Government's budgetary policy designed to secure sustainable growth and increased living standards. He said during his time as Minister, he had made fundamental changes to the tax system. "I have delivered reduced tax rates across the board . . . I have made the tax system fairer by introducing tax credits which ensure all taxpayers benefit equally from reliefs . . . I have streamlined and reformed the tax system in a range of areas. I am happy to stand over this record."
The Labour spokesman on finance, Mr Derek McDowell, criticised the Minister for failing to take those on the national minimum wage out of the tax net.
"Some €223 million were foregone on individualisation. If that had been put into taking people on the national minimum wage out of the income tax net, he could have done that. Instead, he chose, unsurprisingly, to use that money to push further his own pet project of individualisation." Mr McDowell said much of the rise in public expenditure in the past four years had gone into public service pay.
"We need well-motivated, well-paid public servants and there was no way to avoid this increase. In the health service, most of us understood and supported the case made by the nurses and the one now being made by the junior hospital doctors.
"Sixty per cent of the increased expenditure on the health service over the past four or five years has gone into pay and has not necessarily led to any significant improvement in, or extension to, the service provided with the money".
