The progress of the last 10 years has allowed Ireland to say goodbye to emigration and largescale unemployment.

Economic stability has allowed us great opportunity. All of this is good. Next Wednesday, Minister for Finance Brian Cowen will deliver a budget which, in effect, marks the beginnings of what will hopefully be another decade of growth and success.

Cowen has unprecedented resources available, as last Friday's pre-budget white paper confirmed. Nobody . . . not least the opposition parties . . . would wish the finance minister to embark on a spending splurge that merely seeks to secure victory for Fianna Fail and the PDs at next year's general election.

Prudence is an admirable virtue, but the money now available to the government should allow our politicians to be hugely ambitious about our collective futures.

The resources are available to transform how we live. It is time to end trollies in hospitals, school children in prefabs and workers in traffic gridlock. We can have world-class public services. We can make poverty in Ireland history.

What we need is a political figure to step forward to spend our money wisely . . . to take on the vested interests . . . and to do so quickly. The time for economic management is over.

It is now time for ambition and foresight. These are sentiments that Brian Cowen . . . a man talked about as a future Taoiseach . . . would do well to remember as he prepares for next Wednesday's budget.