Why is this man smiling? Brian Cowen chuckles away with his Budget

Brian laughs at his Budget while I just despair at the wasted opportunity

Despite what Michael McDowell might think or even insist, the Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen TD, is the second most powerful man in the country. The resources at his disposal are enormous and at this moment in time have never been greater.

Last month we took in, in taxes, more in that single month than we did during the entire year of 1990. Never have we had a better bank balance, never have we had the opportunity and resources to radically change our country for the better.

No other Finance Minister in our history has ever had such a chance to address what is wrong with us as a nation. Brian Cowen could have used the 2006 Budget to have poured billions into affordable housing, embarked on a massive construction programme for social housing, correctly funding and furnished our hospitals and health boards, rolled out Breastcheck nationwide and embarked on a radical and courageous battle against poverty and social exclusion.

But no. He has taken the soft route of buying our votes with our own money. I like so many other of us will be better off from this Budget, but the country won't be. My friends in their 30s and 40s still won't be able to afford their own homes, the hospitals will still have people on trolleys in the hallways and the poor and homeless will still be poor and homeless.

What a wasted opportunity. Why is this man smiling and what are we going to do about it?