Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is in the reactions to the budget that we see the fairness or otherwise. I was trying to imagine a budget that would be welcomed by those on low and middle incomes, by those people who have worked all their lives, reared their families and given great service in their communities as opposed to being outside the gates of Leinster House protesting as they have been last week and this week. I was trying to imagine a budget that would be welcomed by those with mental and physical disabilities and by young people. However, we saw the reaction to the budget and see the essential unfairness of it.

The Minister met many of the groups making pre-budget submissions. Organisations such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Focus Ireland, the Simon Community, and Social Justice Ireland are the ones most directly involved with the people who always tend to be affected most by budgets. There are glaring discrepancies between what the Society of St. Vincent de Paul called for beforehand and its reaction after it. A small point is that those in full-time third level education no longer qualify for the back-to-school clothing and footwear payment. That was fine at a time when there were jobs for people at third level, but they have gone.

The one-parent family tax credit will bring independent families into depending on organisations such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul thereby further increasing the demands on its services.

I believe there will be major problems with the measure relating to young people because some of those people are parents, some live with their children and some live apart from their children. They may have been in private rented accommodation but they are now going to be back with their families, putting an extra burden on them. We know there is a major housing crisis in Dublin Central. Therefore, I am unsure where all these people are going to live. For those who do not have a place to live, the changes will drag them into homelessness and we know the demands on those services already. Those who go into emergency hostel accommodation will find it difficult to access training and education. The hostel charge is between €50 and €75 per week. What will be left for people then? We are going to see an increase in the numbers begging on the streets. I met representatives from the Centre for Independent Living immediately after the budget and they had grave concerns about the effects on the people they represent as well as fears of more cuts coming along.

We could pay for all of these things and it could be a fair budget if we collected all the corporate tax and perhaps even increased it a little. Furthermore, if we brought in a financial transaction tax many things could be paid for.

See this speech in context