Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is precious little for struggling farmers in the budget. My party, Sinn Féin, has repeatedly called for the restoration of the farm assist payments to their 2013 level. The Government's refusal to respond to that call which is echoed by farming organisations shows a disconnect from the realities of life for those who are struggling in rural Ireland. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton's claim that farm assist could be replaced by jobseeker's allowance shows how little she and the Government care if they end up destroying rural life as we know and cherish it.

There is a definite trend in all of the new measures which shows that the future of the family farm and the rural way of life, from which most of us come, are not a concern for this or the past Government. This is despite all of the promises and spin in which the Government has been engaged for the past few months. In the case of farmers, it started with the abolition last March of milk quotas. One would think they were after winning the lotto the way this was heralded, but many small dairy farmers are now in trouble, yet the Government sits back, as the Taoiseach did this morning on the issue of homelessness, and tells us the market will resolve everything. The banks are chasing small dairy farmers and the market price of milk is too low, but the worship of market forces and the disregard for the vulnerable, not just in farming or rural areas but all over the State, mean that in everything the Government does, including the budget, the vulnerable are on their own.

Has nothing been learned from what happened in phe last few years? Is the Government so insulated from the real world that a return to boom and bust politics is acceptable? It is trumpeting the fact that it has made taxation changes to help the less well-off when it is clear from the figures that the cuts to the universal social charge and the changes to PRSI will put triple the amount in the pocket of someone on €70,000 per year compared to the average worker. The person earning €70,000 will benefit to the tune of €886 per year, while a person on €25,000 will receive less than €230 per year.

The way the Government is handing out lollipops might win it a few votes in the general election, but it is damaging the tax base in the long term. Reducing taxation income in such a way can only mean more damage to public services in the future and the Government is doing this in a totally dishonest way. Saving up trouble for the future is the way boom and bust politics work, but the Government does not give a damn about the suffering this will mean down the line for the most vulnerable, as long as it can cynically pull the wool over people's eyes until the general election. It does not even pretend that it is working towards a meaningful long-term investment in infrastructure and front-line services.

The media talk about the emergency in the health service and the homelessness crisis, but when the Government laid out its plans for these services yesterday, its policy was to make them do with what they had. It has turned what those dependent on the services call a crisis into a policy of "making do". We can now truly say it is the Government's policy to leave health, education and housing services in the state they are in, with the suffering that implies.

The Government was crowing about NAMA building 20,000 homes in the next five years. Even if that was enough, what has the Government been doing in the past five years since building stopped and suffering and stress for thousands of people followed? I hope it will get its comeuppance before the anniversary of the Easter Rising as it has made a mockery of the 1916 Proclamation. This is not the future the men and women of 1916 envisaged for the country, for which they fought and were prepared to die. The Government has made a mockery of the aspirations for a equality of rights and opportunities for the people. It has looked after the top 14%, giving them €180 million in a reduction of the universal social charge alone, with giving relief for the lower paid.

The Government has shown itself to be cynical in the extreme. Ministers stand and talk about recovery, but it is not a fair recovery. They look after the well heeled, but the rest can continue to suffer the consequences. The Government has made no meaningful attempt to tackle child poverty or homelessness. It has engineered the closure of a refuge for victims of domestic violence. Thousands are homeless; people are dying on the streets; the health service is collapsing, and inequality is increasing on all sides. Sinn Féin has set out a political alternative that puts investment centre stage - investment in services, infrastructure and small businesses. All of this can be delivered through fair and sustainable taxation. The Government calls this fantasy, while visiting a nightmare on the people we represent. Shame on Ministers and the Government.

I wish to be associated with the expressions of sympathy and offer my sympathy on the murder of Garda Golden and the deaths of the Traveller families who died the other day. I also offer my sympathy on the death of the homeless person who died on the streets and the death of Fr. Gearóid O'Donoghue, a priest in my parish who burned to death in a house fire on Monday morning.

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