Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am concerned about the reduction brought about by the previous Government and equally concerned by the reductions brought about by this Government. The Government is trumpeting that it has put €196 million back into social welfare but it has taken out almost €2 billion. The Tánaiste outlined the cuts made by the previous Government yet not one of them, with the exception of one small example, have been reversed. I find it peculiar that the Tánaiste says the general cry in the feedback is the maintenance of rates. Is there not a commitment in the programme for Government to retain the rates? Why would people be worried that rates would not be retained? Is it that people do not believe Government commitments? We can hardly blame them for that in view of the fact that so many of them have been broken. Groups representing the senior citizens parliament and the elderly met us and were concerned about the cuts in the fuel allowance, which have not been restored. We heard lurid tales about peoples staying in bed for 12 hours to get a bit of heat. People have to turn off the heat at certain times because electricity prices are so expensive. They also talked about the slashing of free ESB allowances. People talked about elderly people being isolated because they lost the free telephone rental allowance. In some cases, they had to give up a landline and there is no change in that.

We heard from people who told us they were carers and worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week, contributing €70 million per week to this country. Without that contribution, the 3% deficit target would still be out of sight. Deputy Ó Snodaigh has an amendment to reflect their request for the restoration of the respite care grant. There is no sign of that. The respite care grant is not a bonus payment, such as that received by the people at Irish Water, but rather a payment to enable people who are working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to care for loved ones, often at the expense of their own health, to get a reasonable break. The Government took away 25% of that payment. People have been crying about that.

If we examine the budget speeches of both the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, the word "carers" is not featured once. In my amendment I wanted to highlight that all those changes have been made on top of previously made changes. None of these has been reversed, and although I welcome the partial restoration of the Christmas bonus, I have not met anybody who put it at the head of the agenda. The Government decided that what little money it had would be spent in that area in order to reach as many potential voters as possible.

My amendment simply asks for an analysis of what has been taken from people so this and future Governments will know where are the priorities if there is money available. I am told we cannot debate this because of a potential charge on the Exchequer. I could do it free of charge, so there would be no charge on the Exchequer. There is no demand for it to be done today or immediately. The rules are really being taken to extremes.