Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

Most of the points about the health effects of this budget have been well covered by my colleagues. They highlighted how the budget has imposed numerous stealth taxes and cuts. Deputy Shortall has outlined the so-called treacherous 30. A rational analysis of this budget would leave one in no doubt but that every single citizen will be adversely affected. The Taoiseach yesterday called the nation to patriotic action. In a later deposition, for want of a better word, the Taoiseach stated this Government is predicated on a philosophy of republican egalitarianism. When the Minister for Finance finished his speech yesterday and the backbenchers rose to applaud him, I thought they were going to spontaneously burst into a rendition of "Wrap the Green Flag Round Me". From where I stand as a republican and as somebody who subscribes to those republican ideals and those ideals of egalitarianism, this budget is far from that. If I was an elderly person today, or if I was somebody who was surviving on a low income or if I was unemployed and I was seeking some solace from this budget, none would be found. There is nothing in this budget that covers those people who would subscribe to those same ideals, namely, every single citizen.

If it was an egalitarian budget, it would not have introduced a levy of 1% on all income. If we subscribe to the notion that taxation must be equitable and fair and it must abide by the canons of taxation, then the tax rates would have been increased and the Minister would not have increased taxation on all income. I wish to nail the lie that this is somehow a progressive measure. What it seeks to do is further decrease take-home pay and real income. The people most affected will be those on the margins or in the low-income bracket. If this is coupled with the increases in stamp duty, the increased charges for third level registration, increases in VAT and in DIRT, no matter what way, such people will be caught on all sides. These are not the actions of a Government that cares about levelling taxation in a truly egalitarian manner.

I had a call today from a lady from Cloyne in my constituency of Cork East. This lady is married, there are two incomes coming into the family and she has four children. This is a person who is rational in her assessment of the current climate. She and her husband have lived through the 1970s and 1980s and had begun to raise a family in those times when her husband and herself were paying 50 pence in the pound and possibly more in taxation. She has a 22-year old son and she is now actively encouraging him to emigrate. She told me she can see no hope for him in the present climate in this country. She is telling him his best chance of getting a good job and surviving in this world would be to get out of here. There is nothing that she could see in the current climate that would give her or her family any hope. She told me that her husband is near retirement age and that they both worked hard for every single penny they earned. They never asked for anything from the State. They never had medical cards. They paid the high rates of tax in the 1970s and 1980s. They sent their kids to college but they never qualified for third level grants. That family is representative of thousands of families who today will have to pay the price of the profligacy of the past seven or eight years. They will have to pay the cost of that deficit of approximately €12 billion, if the figures are to be believed. As her public representative, what am I to say to her to give her any hope for the future? I do not blame her for the cynicism that she expresses about the political system. When I hear the Government wrapping the language of this budget in patriotic fervour and republican egalitarianism, it sticks in my craw a little bit. The Government, notwithstanding the external forces we hear so much about, must take some level of political responsibility. If we were on that side of the House, we would have to take political responsibility if the cards were stacked in the same way. This is what the people want, particularly those who are on low to middle incomes. They do not want always to be forced to pay the price of Government profligacy. This is not what they have subscribed to. They are, by their nature, always PAYE workers and they are the people that work the hardest, put their children through college and do not expect a lot from the State but they do not expect to be punished by the State either and that is what this budget has done to those people. If we are talking about egalitarianism and about equity in the system, then I call on the Government to reverse some of those measures to at least release the real income or let them claw back some of that real income they have lost through these measures. This would be equitable and fair and there would be a greater share of the burden of responsibility. As a high-income earner, I would be happy to take on a greater burden if necessary.

It is often said that the true mark of an egalitarian society is how older people are treated. This budget has clawed back the medical card for the over-70s and this is nothing short of a disgrace. I will not use superlatives or come out with a soundbite but it is unfair on those people. We had created expectations and put in place a system that people had become familiar with. When they came to the autumn years of their lives they had the peace of mind of knowing they could go to the GP when they wanted to and had that little entitlement when inflation and the cost of living were increasing. They no longer have that little cushion. I call on the Government to reverse that as an egalitarian and truly republican measure. If the Government subscribes to those ideals it will reverse this measure.

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