Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

Contrast that with the treatment of people at the lower end of the scale — those in part-time jobs, in community employment or on training schemes — who the Government will now tax. Almost 800,000 people who are currently outside the tax net will be brought into it while landlords are left outside with their perks.

Another example of what the Government could have done is to have abolished tax relief for super private clinics. If this had been done, €1 billion would have been saved, which would have removed the burden from people on welfare and low incomes, who the Government sacrificed through its actions yesterday.

The Government could have done something about the extraordinary pension situation where extraordinarily generous tax reliefs are provided for those who have their own pension schemes. I am not talking about ordinary workers on ordinary incomes but, again, about the high rollers and those who have self-administered schemes, who are facilitated in putting together funds of over €5.5 million. The high rollers are the untouchables when it comes to pensions.

I acknowledge the Government made some move with regard to other pension products by putting a cap on the level of tax relief allowed for PRSAs and RACs. However, why did the Minister not go further? He could have reduced that cap to a level of €100,000 so people with earnings of up to that amount, who are doing reasonably okay, could continue to make pension contributions. However, there is no justification on any grounds for the State to subsidise people earning in excess of €100,000 in their pension contributions. If the Government had done this, if it had been bold in its decisions and if it had decided to be fair in the budget, it could have raised an extra €287 million from that measure alone.

There are of course other areas. For example, the Minister could have decided to close the loophole that allows developers to avoid stamp duty on commercial property. This would have brought in another €250 million if the Government had the courage to do it and if it was driven by the principle of fairness. Unfortunately, this was not the way chosen. Clearly, the Government shied away from the difficult choices it should have made. Instead of boasting about being brave and not shying away from choices, it absolutely shied away from the choices facing it. It could have decided to target those who were better off, who have done very well in recent years and who could well afford to make sacrifices. Instead, those people were left to their own devices. The Government decided that those who have done very well, the rich, would become the untouchables and instead it took the soft option of targeting those on average incomes and on welfare.

I want to comment about the appearance of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, on the news last night. I could not believe it when I listened to his comments on the budget. In that self-satisfied manner and style he has cultivated over the past year or so, he told people he was actually proud of this budget because it had protected welfare, education and health. The Minister needs to wake up and see what is going on. I do not know whether he is too busy pursuing his own agenda to see what other people have had to contend with in terms of the provisions of this budget but he clearly does not understand the extent of the cuts that have been introduced.

For example, the social welfare budget is approximately €1.5 billion more than the projected outturn for the current year. However, when one considers the likely significant increase in the number of claims from those being made unemployed or redundant, and all of the additional payments for the back to school allowance, MABS and the other extras which will undoubtedly arise, far from there being an 8.3% increase in the social welfare budget, the real increase in the Department's budget is less than 5%. In real terms, this breaks down into increases of between 3% and 3.3%. In the context where there is a current projected rate of inflation of 4.3%, far from welfare recipients making any progress, they will not even stand still. In real terms, they will be worse off next year than they are this year. By any standards, that does not represent protection for those dependent on social welfare.

Equally, I would tell the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to wake up and see what is happening with regard to health, where there is the loss of the automatic entitlement to the medical card for those over 70, increased accident and emergency charges, the halving of tax relief on medical expenses, increases in hospital charges and long-stay charges and an increase in the threshold for the drugs refund scheme. All of these measures will impose huge hardship on people on low incomes who have health problems. There are many people in that category and they are the ones who will bear the brunt of the cuts announced in the budget.

The same is true in regard to education. What has happened on the education front is shameful. At a time when we should recognise the importance of education and ensure people continue to receive good quality education so that we strive to reach European standards, the Minister has decided to increase the pupil-teacher ratio. That is an extraordinary decision. In the light of the campaigns that ran last year in that regard I hope the INTO will now give Fianna Fáil its answer.

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