Green Party General Election candidate, Deirdre de Burca said: "This is not a Green budget. Excluding the Rural Environment Protection Scheme, less than €300m of new money has been allocated to environmental measures, and over 90 per cent of this will go on buying carbon credits. The Government is allocating €270 million on carbon purchases in the years leading up to 2013. They are clearly intent on buying their way out of the problem. It would be better to invest in renewable energy, in improving the building standards for new homes and funding improvements in public transport”.

“The Minister made some encouraging noises on changes to Vehicle Registration Tax but he put the issue on the long finger by setting up a consultation process that will not deliver anything until 2008. The fact that the Government is this year spending six times more on roads than on public transport shows how flimsy their Green credentials are."

"This is also a disappointing budget for those who had hoped that additional investment would be made in the education system. The Minister for Finance has more resources at his disposal than originally anticipated. However, the only education measure of note is the welcome increase in allowances for certain education schemes, in line with those for social welfare recipients. But this is a drop in the ocean. We needed a brave and visionary move to tackle educational disadvantage. The Government has instead played it safe and children and the taxpayer will end up paying as a result."

"The money allocated to primary healthcare is well short of what is required to deliver a quality primary healthcare system. This budget does not deliver the world class health system that Mary Harney promised when taking office, and if not properly addressed the problems in our A&E departments will continue. We are disappointed that medical card eligibility has still not been returned to the pre-1997 levels. Unless this is done, Ireland will continue to remain an extremely unequal society."