P J Sheehan (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

This Government has put 250,000 people on the unemployment register. Many more have been put out of work but are not receiving a welfare payment and we do not know how many of our young people have been driven abroad. This Bill is a damning indictment of a disastrous Government that has failed its people. The Government does not give a damn for anyone or anything other than surviving and looking after its speculator friends in the banks and building industry. It has always claimed it would have to make the national cake bigger before sharing it but in spite of adding so much self-raising flour it fell flatter than a pancake.

There is a silent army of workers on duty 24 hours per day, seven days per week and 52 weeks a year who cannot protest or threaten to strike. It is because of the perceived silence of these workers - the Garda Síochána which upholds law and order - that the Government has reduced their weekly payment.

If any recipients of social welfare are worth their weight in gold, it is carers, each and everyone of whom saves the State at least €1,000 per week or five times the carer's allowance by caring for relatives at home. The Government, like a pickpocket, took money out of their pockets and handbags.

My colleague, Deputy Leo Varadkar, has discovered that the Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government is responsible for a dog licensing scheme that costs twice as much to administer as it raises in revenue. It costs €5.7 million to administer and raises only €2.6 million in revenue, proof that the Government's thinking has gone to the dogs.

A Government that cuts the welfare payment of the mentally handicapped and physically disabled can only be described as mean. The Fianna Fáil Party has no compassion and does not care for the weakest and most vulnerable members of society. The reduction in the number of special needs teachers shows where the Government's priorities lie and it is not with the weakest and most needy in society. The cut in the children's allowance also shows that the weakest have been targeted by this arrogant and smug Government. In allowing tax relief on wheelie bins while cutting payments to those who must buy prams, the Government has demonstrated that its priorities are in the gutter.

The Taoiseach forecast a soft landing. If this is the soft landing he predicted, it reminds me of the executive jet which landed in the darkness of night on Mallow racecourse where its passengers discovered in the mud that there was no runway to take off again. Sitting in their safe cocoon, members of the Cabinet have opted to take a smaller pay cut than anyone else and are wandering around shell shocked, asking who will build the runway for them to take another flight of fancy.

The message from this Bill is that Government Members are cowards. He who shouts loudest and longest will survive while others will be targeted. I do not see a provision to increase the fuel allowance next autumn when the carbon tax will be levied on central heating oil and natural gas and, possibly, coal and turf. Must people burn logs or will the Minister introduce a amendment on Committee Stage to provide for such an increase?

Mortgage payments are not prescribed for inclusion in calculating means for jobseeker's allowance, whereas they are included in calculating means for a medical card. I ask the Minister to have this issue examined to ascertain if a formula can be found to allow persons who do not receive the maximum payment of €196 to deduct at least the interest part of their mortgage in calculating means.

I cannot understand the reason the Minister is extending the scheme which robs young people of the maximum rate of jobseeker's allowance. Do those aged 24 years have fewer costs than those aged 25 years? Is their rent, food or transport cheaper? It appears the Minister is switching off the light at the end of the tunnel and sending these young people across the Great Barrier Reef to Van Diemen's Land to find work and earn a living.

The Government may rush the division to have it done with before Ministers and the Deputies behind them face their constituents at the weekend. Some day, probably sooner rather than later, they will have to ask their constituents for their vote and when they do so people will not vote the same way as the Ministers and their backbench Deputies do tomorrow evening.

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